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| 5.061 Ft
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| 1. | A Cock-Eyed Optimist
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| 2. | Younger Than Springtime
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| 3. | Bloody Mary
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| 4. | Twin Soliloquies
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| 5. | I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
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| 6. | There Is Nothin' Like a Dame
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| 7. | Dites-Moi
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| 8. | A Wonderful Guy
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| 9. | Happy Talk
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| 10. | Honeybun
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| 11. | Some Enchanted Evening
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| 12. | You've Got to Be Carefully Taught
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| 13. | My Girl Back Home
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| 14. | This Nearly Was Mine
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| 15. | Bali Ha'i
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Jazz / Show Tunes, Mainstream Jazz, Musicals
Harry Allen-tenor saxophone
Joe Cohn-guitar
Joel Forbes-bass
Chuck Riggs-drums
Rebecca Kilgore-vocals
Eddie Erickson-vocals
One of the greatest musicals in history is given a buoyant, swinging romp that cuts a rare path between the opposing demands of jazz and theater. The CD comes on the heels of a major New York revival of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center Theater that, in 2008, collected seven Tony Awards!
"Superior musicianship and chemistry by the quartet as they swing hard and play with feeling."
---BR--Jazz Review
Harry Allen, Joe Cohn, Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson, with this CD - their second Broadway show project - can now be said to constitute the official Arbors Repertory Company of American Musical Theater. Late in 2007 they released their Guys and Dolls collection (Arbors 19354), and this follows in a similarly unique form. I say unique because it cuts a kind of rare middle path between the opposing demands of jazz and theater. Virtually all the jazz-Broadway productions we�ve heard in the past have been open-ended instrumental abstractions of the original. Here, though, Allen and Cohn jam the songs while vocalists Kilgore and Erickson (heard on 12 of the 15 tunes) remain securely moored to the substance if not the style of the primary scores. The result is a buoyant, swinging romp through South Pacific, but with the words, the verses, and the sentiments of the original still in focus to remind us what the show is really about - a love story corrupted by racism.
--- John McDonough, who writes regularly for Down Beat and The Wall Street Journal
The multi-award-winning Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific had been languishing in obscurity until its Lincoln Center revival in 2009. Harry Allen and Joe Cohn decided to give these tunes their own jazz take, something that had been done before, but not to this extent of swinging and bopping them. With vocalists Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson, this island setting of a postcard love affair gone wrong via bigotry is rendered in heartfelt tones by the singers, and jammed on by the instrumentalists in a carefree manner that easily reflects the idea of a getaway-from-reality holiday. Though not done with Latin trim, the story lines expressed by Kilgore and Erickson do take the tropical setting into account, contrasting the ins and outs of love versus lust far from home. Kilgore is particularly miffed at her man during the more commercially known "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair," but easily turns around with cute praise for "A Wonderful Guy." Erickson is much more under a swoon on several tracks like the corny, fluffy "Honeybun," sounding very much like Jack Sheldon, but has to concede he has everything but the girl for "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame" and readily admits to cheating on "My Girl Back Home." Most of the songs are in easy swing mode, but "Twin Soliloquies" is a Brazilian lover's paradise song, "Some Enchanted Evening" is an eight-plus-minute discourse on the blues as they question the pairing, and "You've Got to Be Taught" represents a preachy cautionary tale on hormonal overflow. There are three strictly instrumental numbers: the good bopper for Allen "Bloody Mary," the ballad for the cool tenor man "Dite-Moi," and the exceptional feature for Cohn "Happy Talk" (where his co-leader follows along). John McDonough includes some detailed liner notes about the three-pronged history of South Pacific, including the Broadway stage show in the late '20s to early '30s, the film version in 1958, and current activities in reviving it. A credible effort by these reliable musicians gives the tunes further cachet, not updated by any means but given new life and accented with a skeptical, doubtful, and timeless warning about life and instant love affairs. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
Harry Allen
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Oct 12, 1966 in Washington, D.C.
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Swing, Mainstream Jazz
Fathers serious about seeing their sons one day becoming famous athletes begin developing their offspring's skills at a very young age. In the case of Harry Allen's father, who was a big band drummer, he played jazz records each day for Harry before he went off to kindergarten. Starting off with accordion lessons, there was a fortuitous switch to saxophone a few years later. Attending Rutgers University, Allen studied saxophone with Sahib Shibab, Bob Mintzer, and John Purcell. In 1989, he graduated from Rutgers with a degree in jazz tenor saxophone. While at Rutgers, Allen got his first gig with the help of master bass player Major Holley, where he replaced Zoot Sims at a studio recording with John Bunch, George Masso, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Ruby Braff. During the session, Dizzy Gillespie dropped by. Quite heady company for a young tenor player doing his first recording. Wholley also led Allen to Oliver Jackson, who Allen subsequently accompanied on several tours to Europe. A 1986 session with Kenny Barron was Allen's first recording date. After that, Allen had 19 recordings to his name for such labels as Progressive, Audiophile, and Nagel-Heyer. Later, his recordings were with major label RCA-Victor. Three of his discs have been awarded a Gold Disc by Swing Journal Magazine and his CD Tenors Anyone won both the Gold Disc and New Star awards. He has recorded as a sideman with Bucky Pizzarelli (with whom he performs quite frequently), Warren Vache, and Jeff Hamilton. Allen's musical inspiration and interpretive approach come from the giants and innovators of mainstream saxophone, including Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Illinois Jacquet, and Lester Young. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Allen has pretty much eschewed the modern, avant-garde, and impressionist schools of jazz of John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Ornette Coleman. Allen continues to record extensively and makes frequent appearances at jazz festivals and concerts.
---Dave Nathan, All Music Guide |
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