PHIL WOODS and GENE QUILL – Phil and Quill with Prestige (LP-1957)

On The Trail Of Old Albums

Label: Prestige – P-7115,  Esquire 32-050

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Released: 1957

Style: Bop, Improvisation

Recorded: Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, March 29, 1957.

Composed By – Phil Woods

Engineer – Van Gelder

Liner Notes – Ira Gitler

Supervised By – Bob Weinstock

This album should be part of any jazz collector. These players both show a later bebop style patterned after Parker; In fact, Woods has a real knack for quoting "Bird" licks as part of his individual style. Quill keeps up with Phil in almost all areas, so you get a jam-session/battle of the horns feel throughout this LP.

Highly recommended.

A1 - Creme De Funk . . . 5:09

A2 - Lazy-Like . . . 5:53

A3 - Nothing But Soul . . . 6:47

B1 - A Night At St. Nick's . . . 6:48

B2 - Black Cherry Fritters . . . 5:27

B3 – Altology . . . 6:30

PHIL WOODS – alto saxophone

GENE QUILL – alto saxophone

GEORGE SYRAN – piano

TEDDY KOTICK – bass

NICK STABULAS – drums

Prestige original design: – well, what is there to say? Hi Phil, Hi Gene.

This one is another great album from 1957 the jazz zenith, the perfect year. Phil and Quill were both alto men, were both Parkerian so it's not that easy to recognize who's playing for the jazz novice. Anyhow I'll help saying that Woods has a more beautiful, autoritathive sound. He's the "boss" here (the rhythm section is quite good but we don't have the biggest stars here), Quill has a smaller sound and less fantasy I might say. Phil Woods is in splendid shape here blowing a bebop phrease after another (quoting Parker here and there, what a musical delight!) being always interesting. Quill is good too, don't get me wrong, very good. But Woods's the Boss and you can easily hear that. The track list is quite interesting. The opener is a minor blues medium tempo, funky blues. Funky in the jazz sense ... every phrase is in place, the attitude is right, bad, absolutly ok. Funky! Dont' think to James Brown here! "Lazy like" is a major tune again mid tempoed. "Nothing but soul" is a little faster.  "A night at St. Nicks" is a fast bopper thing. Woods delight me here! 100% parkerian!! Great! "Black cherry fritters" is a kind of soul jazz thing even if soul jazz is a sixties trend. They anticipate it here because this is another medium tempo tune with a "soul" theme. With "Altology" we come back to up tempo things. Some breaks here and there.

When you're considering an album like this it's difficult to understand which kind of tunes you're going to find under the titles. If you read the title of a standard ok, you know what you'll going to listen, but when you read "Creme de funk" chances are you don't know what you will find. And then you discover that it's a simple minor blues. So I think it helps to read reviews where every tune is described. Blues, minor blues, anatolls are so commonly contrafacted and titled differently that it helps to know in advance what you' ll find under strange titles. Anyway this is an extremely consistent album. I'll call it essential to own a really complete jazz collection. Buy it with confidence. Moreover it is true, it is recorded very well, the overall sound is clean and warm.  (_By Jazzcat)

If you find it, buy this album!