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Dizzy Gillespie - Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London Audio CD

A fair review of the Dizzy Gillespie "Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Dizzy Gillespie reviews here, or go back to the Dizzy Gillespie tabs.

Dizzy Gillespie Band: Dizzy Gillespie
Title: Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London
Rating:
Release Date: 2001-10-23
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Tin Tin Deo 2: Seresta/Carmen 3: And Then She Stopped 4: Tanga 5: Kush 6: Dizzy shells 7: A Night In Tunisia

Super Orchestra...Great Performances
Dizzy with an all star orchestra in front of a very appreciative audience. One of my favorite CDs of all time. How appreciative? The performance received a ten minute standing ovation at the end.

"Tin Tin Deo" brings to mind Chano Pozo with Dizzy and his orchestra in the 40's (Still available on CD). An incredible performance for arrangement, solos, and the pure fire of the orchestra. The ominious percussion intro of Manenguito, Airto, and Ignacio Berroa are particularly effective. The alto solo by Paquito D'Rivera is hair-raisingly gorgeous. Danilo Perez doesn't solo but his piano is crucial, driving the solos and the orchestra with explosive chording.

This is followed by a wonderful display of clarinet mastery by Paquito on the waltz "Seresta" and one of his best compositions: "Samba for Carmen (McRae)".

Flora Purim, one of the best jazz vocalists, is in fine form on "Tanga", as is James Moody on "Kush". He plays a particularly exciting solo here and on "Night in Tunisia". Also of note are the contributions of Slide Hamption, Steve Turre (complete with conch shells), Arturo Sandoval and Claudio Roditi. I highly recommend this CD, but I must say a few solos drift off mike but are audible. I would turn up the volume, just to get the experience. Trust me, it's worth the effort.

Also, the concert can occasionally be seen on the "BET on Jazz" cable channel on it's "Classic Concerts" program. Here, those off-miked solos are clearly audible, so it's worth a look to get the full concert experience (and, of course, to see Flora).


Anything but Royal
The only thing worse than purchasing this CD would be to have been in Royal festival Hall on that fateful night. This was a very disappointing CD on several counts: 1) The recording was very weak--equivalent to an AM broadcast: 2) The All-World band seemed to sleep-walk their way through an unispiring performance; and 3) Arturo Sandoval (the reason I purchased the CD in the first place) had a very minor role and his brilliance could not save this boring self-indugent effort on the part of the band.


One of the greatest jazz CDs
It's amazing to listen to Diz play. This is one of the best jazz CDs I own. Also, Arturo Sandoval's work on this album is amazing. He demonstrates his four octave range! Definitely worth buying.


Gillespie, Sandoval, D'Rivera... what more could you ask?
It also exists, I believe, as a DVD and a VHS Video. This CD was recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in the late 80's. Having seen the concert at which it was recorded, I would certainly recommend the visuals as well as the music.

The quality of the CD recording is excellent throughout, except for a couple of moments at the end of "A Night in Tunisia" where Sandoval is slightly "off mike". That said, engineering is crisp - this album has all of the benefits of a live recording, with none of the detriments. Enjoyably, the producer has chosen to keep Gillespie's bridges from song to song in place, rather than edit each track into one neatly digestible package.

Gillespie's playing on this album is typical of the maestro in his later years, and is a pleasure to listen to. However, the real star of this album is Arturo Sandoval, who was at his stratospheric best when this album was recorded. The exchanges between Gillespie and Sandoval on "And then She Stopped" are worth the price of the Album alone, as is the wonderfully arranged "Tin Tin Deo". James Moody and Paquito D'Rivera provide a wonderful reed section, and D'Rivera in particular plays with real fire.

It's hard to pick out a particular track which is best; they each have their own character. However, the rhythm section plays with extraordinary warmth and attention to detail throughout, and the real joy of the music shines throuhg. If you like later Gillespie, are a Sandoval fan, or just like great modern big band music, this album is a must.


You can see a complete list of all Dizzy Gillespie discography, or go back to the Dizzy Gillespie tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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