The recording quality of this album is off the charts. It’s one of my best sounding albums. The fidelity is top notch. The sound of the cymbals for example is so crisp and clean and the bass is very well recorded as well with plenty of backbone to it. A beautiful recorded session. The music is not too shabby either. Lovely tunes and and great line-up, consisting of Rouse on tenor, Billy Gardner on piano, Peck Morrison on double bass and the great Dave Bailey on drums.
This is an album that I’ve been after for a very long time. There have been opportunities to grab it, but things never materialized. To finally have landed it and played it is a great feeling indeed, especially when the sound just blew me away.
Favorite picks from this fantastic album are ”You Don’t Know What Love Is” where the tone of Rouse’s tenor is warm and breathy, the almost 9 minutes long ”Billy’s Blues”, and the pacy ”Rouse’s Point” where the leader really shows what he’s made of.
It’s a rare record for sure, available in both mono and stereo. Don’t know if they are equally scarce. It’s only my second title on the Epic label, the other one is “The Warm Sound” by Johnny Coles, which is absolutely superb. Anyway, go listen!
