Bobby Hutcherson - Solo/Quartet

Bobby Hutcherson Solo/Quartet

Bobby Hutcherson - vibraphone, marimba, bass marimba, chimes, xylophone, bells, boo-bam
McCoy Tyner - piano
Herbie Lewis - bass
Billy Higgins - Drums

1. Gotcha
2. For You, Mom and Dad
3. The Ice Cream Man
4. La Alhambra
5. Old Devil Moon
6. My Foolish Heart
7. Messina

I first came across this recording when I had a music downloading program known as Ruckus. It was a free way for college students to temporarily download music files. The files were deleted after a few months, and you could not transfer the files onto an mp3 player or cd-r. I was glad when I went into a record store in Madison yesterday (strictly discs), and I found Solo/Quartet for sale. I just got home from visiting my sister, and I am listening to the record as I type.

The album contains one side of solo recordings, and one side of quartet recordings (hence Solo/Quartet). Solo, in this case, is not a vibraphone solo album ala Gary Burton's Alone at Last. It presents Bobby Hutcherson in a one man percussion ensemble recorded via over-dubbing. Hutcherson wrote the three unique solo compositions himself. It is not often that an accomplished jazz percussionist attempts to write percussion ensemble music (Max Roach's M'boom comes to mind as another example). All three are enjoyable. "Gotcha" includes an opening vamp that will be stuck in your head for days. I like how the compositions include space for Hutcherson to improvise on either marimba or vibraphone. The pieces teeter on the commercial, smooth-jazz sound of the time, but the interesting choice of the percussion ensemble canvas makes this side great music to have going on in the background. It reminds me of Erik Satie's idea of "furniture music."

The next side includes an amazing quartet playing a variety of jazz pieces. "Al Hambra" has a Latin tinge to it, "Old Devil Moon" is a medium tempo jazz standard, "My Foolish Heart" is a standard ballad, and "Messina" is a multi-sectional Hutcherson composition.
The four players interact really nicely together. The liner notes suggest that the four players were reunited for this recording. The interplay does indeed sound as if four friends got together to play some wonderful pieces of music. When vibraphone and piano appear together, the first thought is if they get in each others way. On the quartet recording, the answer is no. Hutcherson and Tyner to a great job with subtle comping during each others fantastic solos. In fact, Hutcherson always did a great job of knowing how much he needed to play. On Out to Lunch, which was one of my first reviews, Hutcherson was able to fill the void of piano.

This is a great recording that I am sure will get worn out on my turntable. I think it would make my "desert island" list. That being said, I'm not sure if I would recommend this as the ultimate album that everyone must own. It's got some great variety, and I think my only complaint is that I wish this were a double album so it could contain more solo pieces and more quartet pieces! I wish I could find some audio samples on the web to include in this blog, but I could not find any on youtube or google. If you are interested, I would suggest checking out the 30 second sound clips from amazon, and if you find them intriguing, then go buy the album!