You can’t record a more unusual quartet nowadays. An exotic Hammond organ, a not much less exotic vibraphone, then an alto sax and drums. The sound: crystal clear with a deceptively real sense of space, with a successful integration of these diverse instruments into a convincing whole –as it’s rarely been heard since the blessed days when mono handed its robe over to stereo. Hat’s off! One of the truly noteworthy accomplishments by the traditional Blue Note recording team, who remain as nameless as the trumpeter, who appears on the album’s first selection and a time or two later, and casts his bright, vibrant message all around, with an attitude that from a distance is reminiscent of a young Miles Davis. Even I case the saxophonist David Sanborn should have taken a trumpet to contribute some different brass instrument color, it would be nice to know about that. And above all, we’d like to know who’s responsible for the brilliant recording.
As for the slightly older Hutcherson, Sanborn, DeFrancesco, and Hart (and trumpeter ‘X’), with ‘Enjoy the View’ they manage to coolly pull swing, bebop, and modern jazz out of the hat. All seven titles coming from the musicians themselves, it is an album of joy, tremendous joy. Joey DeFrancesco, Downbeat’s ‘Top Jazz Organist 2003’, in the song ‘Teddy’, plays with a style that may be even crazier than that of Jimmy Smith, who oversaw young Joe as a mentor, and who appeared with him. Joey DeFrancesco also performed with Miles Davis and John McLaughlin. The great vibraphone player, Bobby Hutcherson, heralds the album’s beginning with the first selection, ‚Delia’. As one of the successors to the great vibraphonists of the fifties Terry Gibbs, Cal Tjader, and Mike Mainiere, Hutcherson became quite a sensation in the sixties and early seventies. A series of albums for Blue Note impressively brought about an early and welldeserved fame for this 73 year old. There’s no less fame attached to David Sanborn, who’s been on the jazz scene for more than four decades with his alto sax and distinct sound, and who is a six time Grammy award winner. Last but not least is Billy Hart, who vies with Bobby Hutcherson to see who can bang more sounds out of his instrument – he, with his virtuosity and drum kit, or Bobby with his vibraphone. It’s clear that it has to be called a draw between these two jazz greats to maintain peace in the quartet.! ! The entirety of the album proves this is no old man’s band, despite their collective age being not too far from 300. And as a jazz fan you can’t help but hope that more albums in this vein will follow. With or without the participation of a trumpeter! And produced by the same recording team, whose names and credits are due, and who hopefully will be given mention.
We listened to this 96 kHz 24-bit FLAC download in an acoustically optimized listening room, through Revel Gem2/B15a loudspeakers, driven by a custommade PWM digital amplifier; with its SPDIF input connected directly to a dedicated audio computer for the downloaded data.
Spectrogram
Sampling rate 96 kHz: verified
Bit depth 24 bit: okay
Commentary
Recording with the full overtone spectrum.