Ray Brown - Don't Forget The Blues - The Ray Brown All Stars - Limited Edition 180 Gram LP

Limited Edition 180 Gram LP

Ray Brown need not have made the statement “Don’t Forget The Blues” in this collection, because the blues have become akin to the pyramids –they will last forever. What form of folk poetry has so encapsulated the entire range of human emotions other than the blues. Traditionally, the blues have been something like an escape valve venting off either joy or sorrow – love or hate. The fact the blues have accomplished its point with minimum verbiage and succinctness is one of its endless charms. The blues gets to the point immediately and doesn’t “beat around the bush”. Nowhere is it more evident than in a song that Lil Green used to sing years ago –”I knew you were jivin’ when I took you in”. Obviously, there are disastrous results ahead, and the male-female relationship is headed for trouble, but that is the basic charm of the blues. The average soap opera might possibly take a month’s performances to put the same idea across as that one line in Lil Green’s cogent statement. It is safe to say that jazz would not have the same impact without the solid foundation of the blues. For a music form which by some standards was considered primitive, it has remained resilient enough so that a player without blues roots is suspect. That cannot be said about the quintet Ray Brown fronts on this date. Each musician has had considerable experience in any number of groups and record sessions over the years, and credentials are firmly established. 

Tracklist:

Side 1

1. BLUES’D OUT (4:24)
2. JIM (5:32)
3. NIGHT TRAIN (4:52)
4. IF I COULD BE WITH YOU (ONE HOUR TONIGHT) (6:44)

Side 2

5. ROCKS IN MY BED (6:54)
6. YOU DON’T KNOW ME (5:59)
7. JUMPIN’ THE BLUES (2:46)
8. DON’T FORGET THE BLUES (6:13)

Personnel:

RAY BROWN, BASS RON ESCHETE, guitar AL GREY, trombone GENE HARRIS, piano FENDER RHODES, drums.

Credits:

Produced by Bennett Rubin.
Recorded at Classic Sound Studio, New York, May 1985.