Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You - Tina Brooks, Fisher, Fred
True Blue [Alternate Take][*]
Good Old Soul [Alternate Take][*]
With a strong, smooth tone and an amazing flow of fresh ideas every time he soloed, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks should have been a major jazz artist, but his legacy is confined to a series of dates that he did for Blue N... more »ote as a sideman and leader. "True Blue" is the only album under his own name to come out in his lifetime. He and Freddie Hubbard had recorded Hubbard's "Open Sesame" a week earlier. Based on these two albums alone, Brooks should have been recognized as an important new voice in jazz. This CD adds to two alternate takes to the original LP. * Bonus tracks, not part of the original LP.
Recorded on June 25, 1960 at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey TINA BROOKS, tenor sax, FREDDIE HUBBARD, trumpet; DUKE JORDAN, piano; SAM JONES, bass; ART TAYLOR, drums« less
All Artists:Tina Brooks Title:True Blue Members Wishing: 3 Total Copies: 0 Label:Blue Note Records Release Date: 2/15/2005 Album Type: Original recording remastered Genres:Jazz, Pop Style:Bebop Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC:724386447326
Synopsis
Album Description
With a strong, smooth tone and an amazing flow of fresh ideas every time he soloed, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks should have been a major jazz artist, but his legacy is confined to a series of dates that he did for Blue Note as a sideman and leader. "True Blue" is the only album under his own name to come out in his lifetime. He and Freddie Hubbard had recorded Hubbard's "Open Sesame" a week earlier. Based on these two albums alone, Brooks should have been recognized as an important new voice in jazz. This CD adds to two alternate takes to the original LP. * Bonus tracks, not part of the original LP.
Recorded on June 25, 1960 at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey TINA BROOKS, tenor sax, FREDDIE HUBBARD, trumpet; DUKE JORDAN, piano; SAM JONES, bass; ART TAYLOR, drums
CD Reviews
Necessary Reissue
Thomas Aikin | San Diego, CA | 02/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I had been after this album for about six years, but knew that Blue Note would eventually give it the proper reissue treatment. Tina Brooks has long been a cult hero in jazz and now that True Blue has been included in Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder series he will find additional fans. Brooks, like many other jazzmen, lived hard and died young. He sounds like he's bleeding soul on each note that he plays. Thats not to say his music is depressing, on the contrary he write bluesy classic 50/60s Blue Note hard bop. Brooks' highly melodic solos owe much to his background as an R&B saxophonist. His sense of melody and that ultra lived in sense of the blues is really what makes him a notable player. On True Blue , Brooks is backed by a typically stellar Blue Note rhythm section and is joined by Freddie Hubbard on the trumpet. It really is the Tina Brooks show however as he takes long solos on every cut. Hard to pick any particular standout track, but the entire program is steeped in the blues. Several of the tunes remind me of Brooks' "Street Singer" (still my favorite Brooks piece). I highly recommend True Blue, and its likely his finest album, but Brooks' entire catalog (four albums) is pretty much necessary. Get this and get "Back to the Tracks" before it goes out of print."
Phenomenal!
D. Kolton | The Great Northwest | 08/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Like many of his peers, Tina Brooks life was cut short by a drug overdose. However in the short time he was with us, he recorded some phenomenal stuff. This is by far his best album under his name, with songs that both flow from the bop days, yet maintain such a timelss quality that they seem current today.
Truly no jazz/Blue Note collection is complete without this disk!"
Wonderful
P. E. Fortin | Derry, NH United States | 03/09/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Blue Note was on the mark to re-release this classic. Tina Brook's style of blues laced jazz is a sound that will bring joy to your soul. A must have CD for any jazz collection."
No Bluenote collection is complete without TrueBlue
George | Tokyo, Japan | 05/28/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Tina Brooks has a most original sound, which is both sad and extremely beautiful at the same time. This is one of my top 10 music albums of all time. No BlueNote collection is complete with it."
Yet another troubled genius captured in time...
Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 10/25/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album can best be described as quintessential moody yet swinging and visceral 1960's Blue Note Hard Bop... Though dark at times, there is also an intense energy in Tina Brooks' playing that in many ways reminds me of a cross between Hank Mobley and the sorely under-recorded James Spaulding (a member of Freddie Hubbards' ensemble, Freddie being a key ensemble member on this album.) - - That's to say that his playing demonstrates the schooling he received from Lionel Hampton - - big and warm (though by no means is a he an overt blues honker. That said the blues are definitely in his playing as is the ever-present shadow of Charlie Parker (as well as many of the advancements of the post-bop musicians who were struggling to find a voice of their own in that era.) On top of this a spirit of experimentalism which may not go as far out as Dolphy and Coltrane, yet conveys itself in a conceptually rich style of playing which almost always retains a quality of "relaxed tastiness" just as much as unpredictable edge *IF* you listen closely and with a mature seasoned ear.
Though Tina Brooks did live through the 60's (he died in the early '70s as a result of health problems related to his drug addiction) he only recorded a handful of albums as a leader, the last being 14 years before his death. - - As a sideman, he can be heard on a handful of albums from that era too, post notably Jimmy Smith's "The Sermon" (1958) as well as some albums by Freddie Redd, Jackie McClean, Freddie Hubbard and some Kenny Burrell albums. - - ...then he vanished.
-- two strong points of the album are the ensemble, as well as the tunes he created as his vehicle of improvisation. - - Though the changes are relaxed and "minor blues" feeling, the intensity of the moods and strange angular digressions of the heads and arrangements create one of the most delightful listening experiences to be heard in the Blue Note catalogue... The presence of Freddie Hubbard, Duke Jordan, Sam Jones and Art Taylor obviously do little to hurt - - (Freddie Hubbard in fact demonstrates some of his best "early work" on this album and could just as easily have been listed as a leader. Duke Jordan also gets in a few happening words... and the rhythm section is... oh so... oh so... oh so wow and "right on it".)
If you're a fan of Art Blakey as well as Oliver Nelson, I strongly beg you to dig deeper and dig Tina Brooks...
and if you're already a early-mid '60s Blue Note heavy groove fan, I tell you: this may be one of the greatest Jazz sessions you've never heard ! In fact, you might even find yourself playing certain tunes over and over again as various hooks and lines sing in and simply won't leave your head (as an example the repetitious piano/bass riff from TRUE BLUE.)
P.S. ...and the cover art and engineering ain't so bad either... hmmmmm... wonder why...
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1