Jazz
with Addison Farmer, Nick Stabulas, Ronnie Free
Pianistically, vocally, and compositionally, the music of Mose Allison (b. 1927) forms a junction of country, urban, and urbane blues (Sonny Boy Williamson to Charles Brown to Nat Cole) and bebop (Bud Powell and his many spiritual heirs). Mose's instrumental side is spotlighted in this collection, which joins two 1958 trio dates. From the ingenuity of his lines to the acuity of his harmonies, one can hear why the likes of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims wanted to work with Mose not long after his 1956 arrival in New York. But it is, of course, as a singer-songwriter that Allison reached the wider audience, as well as his fellow artists who recorded his tunes. The five vocals here a pop standard, a Ray Charles R&B hit, an Ellington staple, a gimlet-eyed Allison original, and Mose's winning treatment of Willie Dixon's "The Seventh Son" showcase the honey-and-molasses delivery and cogently eclectic repertoire that have continued gaining him fans into the 1990s. |
