Johnny Hodges, Charlie Shavers – Half & Half (1981/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Johnny Hodges, Charlie Shavers – Half & Half (1981/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:02 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © 2xHD

Shavers and Hodges were genii: unflawed musicians, total original minds, two of the great burnished talents that were ablaze in those fiery jazz years. Both seminal figures: Johnny Hodges, one of the three classic alto-saxophonists in jazz, Charlie Shavers, one of the two or three greatest trumpeters of his era. Both had the gift of making perfection sound easy, and both revelled – with an almost Casanova sensuality – in every tonal, and technical richness that their instrument was capable of. On this record, the two old masters perform in two settings each, both with the kind of ripe luscious talent that grows only in the summertime of an art.

In these days, when jazz has turned to consolidation rather than innovation, records by old masters like Charlie Shavers and Johnny Hodges achieve gold standard almost by definition. Sleeve note accolades can often do little more than acknowledge and applaud the fact, for Shavers and Hodges were genii, of course: unflawed musicians, total original minds, two of the great burnished talents that were ablaze in those fiery jazz years. All that we’ve long known. The two masters on this record led separate musical lives publicly. Like most jazz history this is probably (as Henry Ford once remarked) bunk – who can document the meetings on a neon-lit Swing Street, or lonely midnight roads? – But on this record they occupy separate sides and exclusive treatment in this annotation.

Both, for the most part, are accompanied by Al Waslon, a discreet and highly musical pianist who understands exactly how to let his guest stars shine most tightly, an efficient bassist and drummer, and a prefatory studio announcer whose super-rehearsed superlatives sound a little too good to be true until you remember that true they are. Shavers in just seven tunes parades every banner of this talent; beautifully natural yet harmonically aware improvisation, formidable technique, and that chameleonesque ability to switch, at the flick of a red light, from the serpentine cup-muted temptations of Embraceable You to a no-holds barred flaring attack on “What Is This Thing Called Love”. Surely no more perfect trumpet player ever lived. Exactly the same give or take a saxophone, could be said of Johnny Hodges, who crafted his program with the skill of a sculptor and the dignity of a statue.

Tracklist:

01. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Perdido (02:39)
02. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Jeep’s Blues (02:38)
03. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – All of Me (01:51)
04. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – C Jam Blues (02:17)
05. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good) (02:09)
06. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – In a Mellow Tone (06:58)
07. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Bye Bye Blackbird (02:24)
08. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Breezin’ Along with the Breeze (01:55)
09. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Embraceable You (02:15)
10. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – What Is This Thing Called Love? (02:49)
11. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Time on My Hands (03:32)
12. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – Undecided (02:54)
13. Johnny Hodges & Charlie Shavers – I’ll Make Fun for You (03:35)

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