Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:54
Size: 117,1 MB
Art: Front
(4:54) 1. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
(5:54) 2. Li'l Darlin'
(3:57) 3. Lush Life
(6:21) 4. My Funny Valentine
(4:40) 5. Tangerine
(9:25) 6. Django
(5:14) 7. I Cried for You
(6:23) 8. Secret Love
(4:02) 9. (Back Home Again In) Indiana
Fraser MacPherson was a first-call studio musician for decades before he released his first jazz album in the mid-70s. Despite it being self-produced, Fraser: Live at the Planetarium (featuring Oliver Gannon on guitar and Wyatt Ruther on bass) received raves from near and far. Cadence, out of New York, named it one of the top ten albums of 1976, describing the music as “the most glorious, inspiring sounds.” Britain’s Jazz Journal wrote, “If the jazz on Canada’s West Coast is all of this caliber, lead me to it!” and called MacPherson “a prodigiously gifted and swinging saxophonist.” Stereo Review listed it as “Jazz Record of the Month,” adding, “I really don’t know if they play together regularly. Judging by the rapport in evidence on the record, however, I’m quite willing right now to lay a little money on it.” Someone should have taken the critic up on the bet because the truth of the matter is that the concert at the Planetarium was just the trio’s fifth after forming earlier that year. From that point on, though, the group was in demand all around the world. MacPherson and Gannon, both separately and together, would go on to make numerous CDs. The Planetarium album, however, was never one of them. It was released only on vinyl and cassette. Forty years after the original concert, the album has finally been made available digitally. Prior to this, you had to scour fine second-hand record shops then dust off your turntable in order to hear it.
Now, not only can you listen to it on any device you want, there’s the added bonus of two tracks that didn’t make it onto vinyl. Secret Love and Indiana are outstanding additions that could easily have made the cut were it not for time. The album is a classic without them, but they’re further evidence that the first seven tracks were no fluke! Fraser: Live at the Planetarium remains a favourite of many, including some damn fine younger musicians who wore out their copies of it. Take the great saxophonist and pianist Phil Dwyer, for example, a Juno Award-winner himself and fellow Member of the Order of Canada (MacPherson and Gannon picked up a Juno in 1983 for their duo album I Didn’t Know About You, and MacPherson became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1987). Phil writes: "My dad was a huge fan of “Fras” going back to the Cave days. When the Planetarium album was released, I’m sure he bought one of the first copies. I would have been 11 years old then and the music on the album meshed perfectly with my tastes at the time (Pres, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges). Over the years that album was one of the most frequently played in our house often it was one of the only things that my dad and I could agree on! After giving it another listen prior to writing down these thoughts, I have to say that it sounds better to me than ever. Fraser, Oliver and Wyatt achieved the perfect balance of swing, melody and wit that is the hallmark of the best that jazz has to offer." And Richard Underhill, another Juno Award-winning saxophonist (and founding member of Shuffle Demons), was another big fan. He writes: "Live at the Planetarium was a gift to me on my 14th birthday. My mother had chosen that and another classic jazz album, Time Out, as inspiration for an aspiring young sax player in Salmon Arm, BC. She chose well. “Take Five” echoed through the house on many an after-school eve, but “I Cried For You” and “Tangerine” got top billing.
I played Live at the Planetarium hundreds of times and marveled at the elegant beauty of every note on the album. Fraser MacPherson’s warm and inviting tone, his effortless driving swing and lyrical lines soared over Oliver Gannon’s intricate yet hard-swinging guitar accompaniment. Live at the Planetarium enticed me into the world of jazz with grace and groove and to this day remains one of my favourite albums. I’m excited by the re-release and can’t wait to hear the bonus tracks!" On a personal note, I have to say this is also my favourite of my father’s recordings. It didn’t start out that way, though. As an elementary school student, I’d been pestering him to get his own band. I remembered his days leading the band at the Cave Supper Club and was taken with the trumpets, trombones, drums, the occasional flute, and piano. When that job died down after about a decade, he found himself recording jingles, TV, and being a sideman. I wanted to see my dad as the leader again. When he told me he finally got his own group, I admit I was disappointed to see just a guitar and bass accompany him. What kind of band was that?! But I tagged along during the pressing of that album and heard the music over and over again for a few weeks. And I haven’t stopped listening to it since, including the tracks the public will now hear for the first time, Secret Love and Indiana. I’m sure you’ll love them as I have all these years. We’ll give the last word to guitarist Gannon, who was 30 when he played this concert and who’s still going strong with his own groups and recordings. "Playing with Fraser for over 20 years was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Every night I learned so much just listening to his beautifully melodic playing. This recording of a concert at the Planetarium was done shortly after the trio was formed and thanks to some glowing reviews from the States, it led to a few cross-Canada tours, many jazz festival gigs in Europe and North America and four tours of the former U.S.S.R. Thank you, Fras; I loved every minute of it!" ~ Guy MacPherson https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/frasermacpherson1
Personnel: Tenor Saxophone – Fraser; Bass – Wyatt Ruther; Guitar – Oliver Gannon; Remix – Geoff Turner
Live at the Planetarium
