10 Greatest Jazz Albums - Kenny Burrell 'Midnight Blue'
10 Greatest Jazz Albums:
Kenny Burrell with Stanley Turrentine, Major Holley Jr., Bill English, Ray Barretto - ‘Midnight Blue’
The world has seemingly shifted gears over night as the Covid pandemic swept across the globe. Our region of the world was quick institute social distancing recommendations, driving some out of business and others, like my husband, sent into captivity to ‘work from home’, with this album nurutring his soul at the crack of dawn every morning. As he works in a very high intensity job, this is his go to album at 4:30am as he savours a coffee and grounds himself for the many calls requiring his sage advice and wisdom and technology issues requiring his coll-headed response. In other words, this album sets the stage for him to overcome the challenges he knows will be waiting for him from dawn until dusk everyday during this pandemic!
The album really is a beautiful melodious blending of the blues and jazz. It’s an album expertly crafted to be played in the order it was recorded, Side 1 then Side 2, to play it any other way misses out on the, what I believe, intentional slow build from ‘Chitlins con Carne’ through until the last song, ‘Saturday Night Blues’. For me, there are a number of other reasons I love this album. The songs are clear and easy. I don’t feel like I have to work to enjoy listening to this album. It takes me on a journey with a slower tempo throughout with some incredible Kenny Burrell electric guitar stretches (the blues) with perfectly blended Stanley Turrentine tenor sax and Major Holley bass (jazz) elements and also from the feel and sound of bosa nova (Ray Barretto on conga) ‘Chitlins Con Carne’ and ending with a solid rockin’ conclusion on ‘Saturday Night Blues’. Sitting in the dark at 4:30am listening to this album drinking a fresh brewed cup of coffee is the perfect way to ready my husband for the day ahead!
From the back of the album, I couldn’t have written these quotes any better:
“Looking over the whole session, studying the seven performances and their relationship to the blues, you gain a valuable picture of the variety of moods, tempos, beats and feelings that the blues can involve. each number is somehow different from the rest,” and
“…these sides will take you down in a swinging, gentle haze of midnight blue.”
