Kenny Burrell

Performer: Kenny Burrell
Artist: Cecil Payne; Tommy Flanagan; Elvin Jones; Doug Watkins
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Producer: Bob Weinstock
Distributor: Fantasy (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Kenny Burrell (guitar); Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Elvin Jones (drums). Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on February 1, 1957. Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler. Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1992, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California). Personnel: Kenny Burrell (guitar); Frank Foster, J.R. Monterose (tenor saxophone); Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone); Kenny Dorham (trumpet); Tommy Flanagan, Bobby Timmons (piano); Elvin Jones, Kenny Clarke, Shadow Wilson, Arthur Edgehill (drums); Candido Camero (congas). Audio Remasterer: Phil DeLancie. Liner Note Author: Ira Gitler. Recording information: Hackensack, NJ (02/01/1957); New Jersey (02/01/1957); New York, NY (02/01/1957). Illustrator: Andy Warhol. Unknown Contributor Role: Bob Weinstock. Get this album just for the opener, "Don't Cry Baby," originally a vocal tune cut by the Erskine Hawkins band. It purrs along in that low-key, swinging blues vein that can utterly unwind and relax you after just eight bars, and keeps it cooking that way for another eight minutes. Cecil Payne's warm, conversational tone has none of that abrasive edge that can plague the baritone saxophone, and the rest of the band will be familiar to fans of this era. Tommy Flanagan and Doug Watkins are well chosen confreres, sharing Burrell's taste for a down-home, understated approach to the bop vocabulary, and Elvin Jones' brushwork is the low blue flame underneath it all. "Drum Boogie," Jones' only tune on sticks, is another blues, with an interesting trading scheme between baritone and guitar. Burrell frames the head chord-melody style in conjunction with Payne on Bud Powell's "Strictly Confidential," and takes on the set's ballad, "All of You" as a quartet before bringing Payne back for "Perception," another midtempo bop excursion. Throughout, Burrell is a graceful leader and an articulate soloist, giving room to his sidemen in creative head arrangements, and calling tempos that swing hard without sounding forced.

Detroit guitarist Kenny Burrell is one of the most influential guitar players in jazz. He started out performing with Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, and even Benny Goodman in the 1950s. Under his own name, he released some important collaborative efforts with John Coltrane and Jimmy Smith. Throughout the '60s, with such albums as the iconic MIDNIGHT BLUE, he helped define the modern concept of jazz guitar, and continued to explore the style for decades to come.

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