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The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings
Paul Desmond
Label: Mosaic Records
Released: 2020
Views: 3,900
Tracks
Disc One: Too Marvelous For Words; Line For Lyons; It Could Happen To You;; Just Squeeze Me;;I Wish I Knew; I Should Care. Disc Two: Just Squeeze Me; Meditation; Tangerine; Darn That Dream; Nuages; Like Someone In Love; Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.
Disc Three: Line For Lyons; Wendy; Too Marvelous For Words; When Sunny Gets Blue; Audrey; Darn That Dream; Take Five.
Disc Four: Tangerine; Wave; It Could Happen To You; Emily; Line For Lyons; When Sunny Getz Blue; Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.
Disc Five: I’ve Got You Under My Skin; Just Squeeze Me; All The Things You Are; Autumn Leaves; Wave; Nuages; East Of The Sun; [note: CD and set booklets mistakenly list “I’ve Got You Under My Skin as track 5].
Disc Six: Let’s Get Away From It All; Line For Lyons; Just Squeeze Me; My Funny Valentine; Mean To Me; Wendy; Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.
Disc Seven: Wendy; Wave; Things Ain’t What They Used To Be; Nancy; Manha De Carnaval; Here’s That Rainy Day; My Funny Valentine; Take Five.
Personnel
Album Description
Paul Desmond was an artist who stood alone on the alto saxophone. His tone was light, but full. His
improvisations were complex but always lyrical and direct. If Johnny Hodges was the seducer on alto,
Desmond was the cool intellect always willing to engage all of your senses.
From 1950 to 1967, he was the famous alter ego to Dave Brubeck's equally challenging but always robust
piano inventions. The unprecedented success of the Brubeck quartet with 17 years of constant club dates,
concerts and sound checks, accompanied by a succession of airports, cab rides, hotels and food-on-the run
took its toll on the members of the group.
Desmond's only professional activities outside the Brubeck orbit were several recorded encounters with Gerry
Mulligan and the recording quartet that he led from 1959 to 1965 with guitarist Jim Hall and drummer Connie
Kay on a succession of albums for Warner Bros. and RCA Victor. When the Brubeck quartet disbanded in
1967, Desmond began a phase of semi-retirement. He recorded a number of commercially-oriented albums
for A & M and CTI, produced by Creed Taylor, between 1968 and '74. The last album in this run was the
aptly-named "Pure Desmond" with a quartet that included Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert, who was
recommended to Paul by Jim Hall.
Desmond was accepting few live gigs during this period beyond reunion tours with Brubeck. He didn't need
the money and he was physically spent. But an offer to play the Bourbon Street Jazz Club with Bickert in
March 1975 proved irresistible. Bassist Don Thompson and drummer Jerry Fuller completed the band.
Desmond connected with this rhythm section immediately and a strong musical bond developed on the
bandstand that yanked Desmond out of his doldrums.
He later wrote of "the giddy euphoria of playing a club again after years of concerts." Of the inspirational
sidemen on the date, he said, "Jerry [Fuller] is a charter member of a unique and endangered species - a
drummer who is happiest while devoting his sensitive and intelligent playing to whatever is happening at the
moment…Don [Thompson] is of course, a walking miracle…he writes charts like an angel…he plays the right
changes…his solos are dependably unbelievable. Ed Bickert is unique. Chords, for instance…when I work with
Ed, I find myself turning around several times a night to count the strings on his guitar."
Thankfully, Don Thompson had the presence of mind to start recording the band at the club on his quarter-
track tape recorder. Desmond was energized and the quartet became a strong unit with its own personality in
no time at all. A week in March and two weeks in October yielded enough exceptional music that producer
John Snyder compiled a stunning double album for A & M Horizon entitled "The Paul Desmond Quartet Live."
Another LP on Artist House followed with more material issued on a Telarc CD in 1992.
These recordings are an embarrassment of riches. With a rhythm section that suited his every need, a
renewed Paul Desmond delivered some of the best performances of his career. The repertoire consisted of
standards, Brazilian songs, jazz classics and originals that the alto saxophonist loved to play throughout his
career, challenging himself to breathe new life into material in his comfort zone.
Speaking of comfort zone, Desmond has recorded without a chordal instrument only three times in his career -
on his 1953 Fantasy session with Don Elliott and on two collaborations with Gerry Mulligan in 1957 and
1962. On the last two nights of the Toronto sessions, Ed Bickert was called away due to the death of his
father. Valve trombonist Rob McConnell was brought in to complete the quartet. The results of those nights
are heard here on the fourth disc of the set. They are a revelation with Desmond playing more independently
and taking chances that he might not have with chordal accompaniment.
More albums were planned, but they never saw the light of day. Now Mosaic has gathered all of the material
approved by Desmond and the group (three hours of released material and five hours of unreleased material)
into a 7-CD boxed set of The Complete Paul Desmond Toronto Sessions. Don Thompson has returned to his
original analog tapes and mixed them anew for maximum fidelity.
Review
- The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings by C. Andrew Hovan