Don Lanphere Quintet - Into Somewhere / Year 'Round Christmas

Album: Into Somewhere

Size: 122,9 MB

Time: 53:03

File: MP3 @ 320K/s

Released: 1983/2006

Styles: Jazz: Saxophone Jazz, Bop

Art: Front

01. Noble Indian Song Pt 2 (9:02)

02. Dear Old Stockholm (2:16)

03. Take The A Train (7:07)

04. Last Night When We Were Young (4:15)

05. Brown Rock (6:43)

06. I Heard You Cried Last Night (5:17)

07. Here,not There Silly (8:44)

08. For Kai (7:16)

09. In The Garden (2:16)

One of the happier events in jazz of the early '80s was the comeback of Don Lanphere. A talented tenor-saxophonist during the late '40s who had held his own on a record date with trumpeter Fats Navarro and who also played with Artie Shaw's short-lived bebop band and the Woody Herman Orchestra, Lanphere was off the jazz scene for a few decades. He came back with a series of superb albums for the Hep label, often teaming up with trumpeter Jonathan Pugh. Lanphere's first recording for Hep was From Out of Nowhere, so Into Somewhere was the follow-up. The first few selections are particularly memorable since they consist of a speedy run-through on the chord changes of "Cherokee" ("Noble Indian Song Pt. 2"), a lyrical "Dear Old Stockholm," a rare waltz version of "Take the 'A' Train," and a witty "Brown Rock," which is based loosely on "Sweet Georgia Brown." Lanphere doubles on soprano and sounds quite individual on both of his horns. Pugh and pianist Don Friedman also have plenty of fine solos on this well-constructed and easily recommended CD reissue. ~by Scott Yanow

Into Somewhere 

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Album: Year 'Round Christmas

Size: 160,2 MB

Time: 68:41

File: MP3 @ 320K/s

Released: 1999

Styles: Jazz: Saxophone Jazz, Xmas

Art: Front

01. Overture (1:00)

02. Jingle Bells (6:33)

03. Cradle In Bethlehem (3:33)

04. Silver Bells (6:35)

05. The Christmas Song (4:32)

06. Mary's Little Boy Child (4:45)

07. I'll Be Home For Christmas (4:20)

08. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (6:47)

09. Deck The Hall (6:09)

10. O Come, O Come Emmanuel (6:47)

11. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (5:33)

12. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (5:09)

13. O Holy Night (2:01)

14. Let It Snow, Let It Snow (4:49)

Too often, jazz Christmas albums come off sounding less than improvisational, nearly approaching the easy listening albums of the world. Try playing something with a long and cherished history and form, and too much improvisation seems almost blasphemous. Hence, many artists shy away from too much destruction of the Christmas classics. Here, the great saxman Don Lanphere tinkers with a series of classics, in tandem with an outstanding band, and deconstructs them to their most elemental. These classics almost get lost -- somewhere behind the spurts of collective improvisation, exploratory scale searching, and avant-garde drum solos, you suddenly realize that you're listening to "Silver Bells." Here's the trick, though: where others shy away from such improvisation and tenderly stroke the classics in their usual form, Lanphere arranges these such that the pieces come across as pure jazz numbers that happen to be built on the chord changes of the classics. Not Christmas songs played in a jazz format, but pure jazz, with an underlying Christmas mood or undefinable something to it. With players of the caliber they've got here, it makes for an outstanding, refreshing Christmas album strong improvisation, excellent soloing all around, and just a hint of the holidays to keep the ambience where it's supposed to be. ~by Adam Greenberg

Year'Round Christmas

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