Search - Zoot Sims with Bob Brookmeyer, Sims, Brookmeyer :: Tonites Jazz Today

Sims and Brookmeyer play well together

Bomojaz | South Central PA, USA | 12/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Another good outing for Zoot, this time in 1956, originally issued on the Storyville label. (1956 was a banner year for Zoot, in which he recorded at least 8 albums.) Bob Brookmeyer joins him on valve trombone, along with Hank Jones (p) Wyatt Ruther (b) and Gus Johnson (d). Zoot has a punchy but melodic sound on the tenor sax that is rooted in Lester Young; he is at his most Lestorian on the up-tempo swinger ZOOT'S TUNE. He also plays beautifully on the slow ballad I HEAR A RHAPSODY, where Brookmeyer lays out. BLUES has a real down-home flavor to it, even when Hank Jones switches over to celeste for a chorus; Zoot even sings a chorus (his first vocal on record), though it's nothing to write home about. (Zoot once admitted in an interview that he loved to sing, though he rarely did so on record - probably just as well.) Brookmeyer takes an interesting off-the-beat solo on BLUE SKIES. All told, this is a very pleasant, enjoyable CD."