Ike Quebec: Bossa Nova Soul Samba [BLUE NOTE / EMI]

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition is cut directly from the original analog tapes, mastered at Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI, in a gatefold jacket. It's a warm, romantic tenor saxophone take on bossa nova from Blue Note's golden era.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Cut from the original analog tapes
• Mastered at Cohearent Audio
• Pressed at RTI
• Stereo mix

About the album

In 1962 the whole of America seemed to be catching the bossa nova bug, and Ike Quebec answered with something rather more intimate than a dance craze. On October 5 he walked into Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with Kenny Burrell on guitar, Wendell Marshall on bass, Willie Bobo on drums and Garvin Masseaux on chekere, and Alfred Lion produced.

The material ranges wide: Burrell's own "Loie" opens the set, "Goin' Home" turns Dvořák's New World melody into a slow, smoky ballad, and "Liebestraum" gives Liszt the same treatment. Brazilian songs "Shu Shu," "Favela" and "Linda Flor" sway gently, while Quebec's own "Me 'N You" and "Blue Samba" let him stretch out. Burrell comps softly behind every phrase, and Bobo and Masseaux keep the rhythm feather-light. AllMusic's Scott Yanow heard warm, long tones reminiscent of Coleman Hawkins in a romantic mood, over rhythms that are light, appealing and authoritative.

It was Quebec's last recording, and a beautifully unhurried way to sign off. It's the perfect late-evening record, and one of very few albums on which Franz Liszt and Willie Bobo share a credit sheet.

Also at Kops: more Ike Quebec on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 84114), a reissue of the 1962 album.