Recorded on May 26, 1978
I've always enjoyed Bennie Wallace's sound. It's so big and brawny. You can hear swing-era heroes like Coleman Hawkins and Herschel Evans in there. But there's nothing self-consciously retro about it. His playing lets you know he's familiar with these masters, but he has assimilated them, creating his own personal and thoroughly modern voice.
At the start of his career, Wallace made a series of outstanding recordings for the (West) German label Enja. From this listener's point of view, the finest of the run is this live trio performance with Eddie Gómez and Dannie Richmond.
The album was recently reissued on the Japanese Solid label with two Thelonious Monk compositions as bonus tracks, "Ugly Beauty" and "Ask Me Now."
More Bennie Wallace
- The Fourteen Bar Blues (Enja, 1978)
- The Free Will (Enja, 1980)
- Bennie Wallace Plays Monk (Enja, 1981)
- Big Jim's Tango (Enja, 1983)
I have Bennie Wallace's Free Will album and 2 Enja albums from the 80s: Plays Monk, and Big Jim's Tango. All highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing to me is the adoption of Bennie Wallace by audiophile labels like Groove Note and Audioquest. There is a string of records between 1993 and 2003 featuring Wallace with various pianists like Tommy Flanagan. These are gorgeous records if somewhat stylized for the audiophile market. Bennie remains his solid self throughout.