[1] Falling in Love with Love (R.Rodgers) - 5:12
[2] My Funny Valentine (R.Rodgers) - 6:17
[3] Lover (R.Rodgers) - 6:47
[4] Bewitched (R.Rodgers) - 5:18
[5] I Didn't Know What Time It Was (R.Rodgers) - 4:47
[6] My Favorite Things (R.Rodgers) - 6:04
[7] Have You Met Miss Jones (R.Rodgers) - 7:55
[8] People Will Say We're in Love (R.Rodgers) - 3:36
[9] I Could Write a Book (R.Rodgers) - 7:09
[10] Medley: There's a Small Hotel Where or When (R.Rodgers) - 3:44
[11] Thou Swell (R.Rodgers) - 2:15
GEORGE COLEMAN - Saxophone
BILLY HIGGINS - Drums
JAMIL NASSER - Bass
HAROLD MABERN - Piano
ROBERT WOODS - Executive Producer
ADAM DORN - Assistant Producer
ELAINE MARTONE - Production Supervisor
JACK RENNER - Engineer
ROBERT FRIEDRICH - Assistant Engineer
JAMES BONNEY - Editing
ANILDA CARRASQUILLO - Art Direction
BRIAN SOOY - Cover Design
STEVE SHERMAN - Photography
DAN MORGENSTERN - Liner Notes
Recorded at Clinton Recording Studio A, New York, New York on January 8
& 9, 1998. Includes liner notes by Lance Goler and Dan Morgenstern.
Inspired by a guest spot in a Carnegie Hall Jazz Band tribute to
Rodgers and Hart, Coleman organized an entire album around the theme --
with a touch of Hammerstein too. It's a mostly mainstream hard bop
session, with Coleman's slightly dry, plain-spoken tone on all three of
his instruments -- soprano, alto and tenor -- lending an appropriately
lyrical bend to the collection of well-known Rodgers standards; well,
its mostly hard bop, "My Favorite Things" is cast perhaps inevitably in
the modal Coltrane mold, with Coleman on soprano for good measure, and
once in a great while, Coleman lets fly outside the changes. A fine,
flexible rhythm section of veterans -- two fellow Memphis colleagues
(pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Jamil Nasser) and one Angeleno drummer
(Billy Higgins) -- sends Coleman on his way in style. As if in tribute
to his rhythm section, Coleman sits out "People Will Say We're in Love"
entirely and dukes it out with Higgins on a brief "Thou Swell." This is
almost an echo of fellow saxman Joe Henderson's successful tribute
formula of the early 1990s, although Henderson's CDs were somewhat more
emotionally involving than this.
Richard S. Ginell, All-Music Guide
Bei einem Carnegie-Hall-Konzert zu Ehren des Songwriter-Teams
Rodgers/Hart soll George Coleman im letzten Jahr allen die Show
gestohlen haben: So entstand die Idee zu dieser Quartett-Produktion.
Tenor- und Sopransaxophonist Coleman, körperlich in bester
Verfassung und mit einem unnachahmlichen Ton gesegnet, sucht auch mit
63 Jahren noch vergebens nach den Grenzen seiner Spieltechnik. Manches
Stück nimmt er viel zu schnell, mancher Lauf mündet in
überreichen Ton-Kaskaden, eine einzelne Note bedeutet ihm nichts,
die saxophonistische Großtat alles. Seitdem er Coltranes
Nachfolger im Miles Davis Quintet war (1963), scheint Coleman gegen
Tranes Schatten anzuspielen - nicht als Nachahmer, sondern als
Konkurrent, der für dieselben Problemstellungen andere
Lösungen anbietet. Doch wenn bei Pianist Harold Mabern die modalen
Girlanden flattern, Billy Higgins die Kreuzrhythmen schlägt und
Colemans Saxophon durchs Labyrinth der Changes segelt, wartet das
historische Coltrane-Quartett immer drohend hinter der nächsten
Ecke. Mittendrin wird's richtig spannend: Wie ziehen sich Coleman &
Co. bei "My Favorite Things" aus der Affäre, Coltranes einstigem
Theme-Song? Eine höchst faszinierende Geschichte.
