Julius Watkins Sextet Vols. 1 & 2
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
You can count notable French horn players in jazz on one hand. Watkins is perhaps the first significant contributor, and he remains one of the best: inventive, no problem hanging on with hard-bop tempos, and, most importantly, able to overcome the intonation problems that plague the tangled horn. This Blue Note goodie collects onto a single disc two sought-after 10-inch EPs he made in 1954 and 1955. They're immaculate demonstrations of Watkins's facility and much more, setting the brassman next to the tenor saxes of Frank Foster (in a group with bop icon Kenny Clarke on drums) and Hank Mobley (in a group with Art Blakey). Lean, agile bassist Oscar Pettiford is always a treat, and these recordings are no exception. However, the weird conventions of jazz engineers crop up on ballads like "I Have Known" and the intro to Watkins's peppy, West Coast-oriented "Garden Delights"--for some reason, gobs of echo are ladled onto the French horn, as if it needed a touch up. --John Corbett
Julius Watkins Sextet Vols. 1 & 2,Julius Watkins Sextet,Blue Note Records,Hard Bop,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop
Julius Watkins Sextet Vols. 1 & 2
Jazz Music:
Recommended Music:
Gemini Suite Live: 1970 [Import]
Johannes Brahms: Piano Sonatas No. 1, No. 2; Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21, No. 2
Music: Zorba the Greek [Import]
Lo 1/4 D'Heure Des Ahuris [Import]