Search - Les Jazz Modes :: The Rare Dawn Sessions (2-CD)

In The Mode

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 07/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I know Charlie Rouse, through his wonderful collaborations with Thelonious Monk. And, I know Julius Watkins, via a delightful Blue Note Connoisseur disc (now out-of-print) collecting his two 10"s for the label. But until I stumbled upon this title on the pages of Amazon, I had no idea Rouse and Watkins had made music together as Les Jazz Modes. This Collectables two-fer presents the late 1950s recordings known as "The Rare Dawn Sessions." Unfortunately, there is no session information about these dates in the liner notes, just a short biographical essay on the artists and a listing of the featured personnel without instrumentation. There are some familiar names contributing -- Paul Chambers, Oscar Pettiford, Art Taylor, Gildo Mahones, Chano Pozo -- and as many more whom I've never even heard of. The best material here is forward-thinking hard bop, with glorious multi-layered frontline horn textures from Rouse's clear, precise tenor sax and Watkins' deep, melodious French horn. At its worst, the music digresses into some sort of third stream hybrid, with harp and opera-style soprano arias added in, and the result is a mixed-bag performance. Fortunately two-thirds of this collection showcases the former, classic jazz, and interested parties should act quickly before this "Rare Dawn" turns to dusk.



P.S. - I wanted to point out that I have now gone through 3 copies of this CD and all had a skip/defect on CD 1 Track 11, from around :20 to :45."