The Soul Of Ben Webster
by Ben Webster

It's got a bit of an old-fashioned feel in 1960, the arrangements have a swing-era sensibility, I mean, of course. Ben Webster was 51 when he cut this album; he's from the swing era. This is like a record from Coleman Hawkins or Duke Ellington from this era--it's an elder statesman record, this isn't the cutting edge, we're here to swing. You know that going in, so what are the low ratings for? Not for the playing, not if you have ears. There is great playing throughout, including by the relative unknowns, Jimmy Jones on piano and, especially, Mundell Lowe on guitar, who kills it every time he gets the chance. Art Farmer of course is great, ripping off terrific lines, and Webster himself has that velvety thing going on, but also the harder edge (I'm not exactly sure what's him and what's the second tenor, Harold Ashby) and it's mostly not ballads as people often think of him, but mid-tempo rather high-energy stuff, and he sounds terrific. So it's pretty great, and the low ratings it's getting are not really making a lot of sense to me.