GEORGE COLEMAN

GEORGE COLEMAN WITH STRINGS

Highnote Records

George Coleman, tenor saxophone; David Hazeltine, piano; John Webber, bass; Joe Farnsworth, drums; Café Da Silva, percussion; Bill Dobbins, orchestral arranger & conductor.

The gorgeous tone of George Coleman’s tenor saxophone fills my listening room with peace.  He opens with “Dedicated to You” (a Sammy Cahn standard) blown from the bell of Coleman’s sax like a prayer.

Henry Mancini’s “Moment to Moment” is arranged with a strong Latin beat and features Café Da Silva on bright, exciting percussion instruments, with Joe Farnsworth holding the beat steady on drums. This is one of my favorites on this album.  The sensitive piano playing of David Hazeltine introduces us to the melody.  When the strings arrive, it is pure bliss. George Coleman steps into this tango, inventive and free, letting his imagination color the song with brilliant colors.

His coloring of the tune “Stella By Starlight” is smokey, textured with spark and warmth that stops me in my tracks.  This is the kind of music that makes me want to shout out expletives.  It’s just so good, it moves me!

This album by George Coleman gives us something we have never heard from him before. It is his first album backed by a lush, string orchestral arrangement. At age 90-years old, it is one of his most beautiful album releases to date.  It celebrates his soulful tones and awesome technique.  A child of Memphis, George Coleman, grew up in the late 40s and early 50s alongside such other notable musicians as Booker Little, Harold Mabern, Hank Crawford, Phineas Newborn Jr. and blues master, B. B. King.

Coleman relocated to Chicago in 1956 and in 1958 joined the Max Roach quartet with Kenny Dorham on trumpet.  After that, he moved to New York city and stayed put. George Coleman has primarily headed his own groups since 1973 and has consistently performed globally. Of course, he has been a major force in jazz education over the past thirty years, teaching at various Universities and inspiring young musicians with his workshops, seminars and master classes.

I have a huge stack of albums sitting on my desktop, however I listened to this album three times, and once in my car riding to the post office to pick up more albums.  Coleman’s music is so amazingly beautiful and masterful.  He puts his stamp on Victor Young’s “Stella by Starlight” and reminds us of his own genius and that of Thelonious Monk’s when he interprets “Ugly Beauty.”

His music and woodwind brilliance is as vital and sensitive as it was sixty years ago. The string arrangements of Bill Dobbins are a work of art created to support George Coleman, who is one of the last giants gleaned from the golden age of jazz.  He will live forever on these recordings. This is by far one of his most legendary jazz albums.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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