Alabama Concerto
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| Alabama Concerto | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1958 | |||
| Recorded | July 28 & 31 and August 25, 1958 Reeves Sound Studio, New York City | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 42:27 | |||
| Label | Riverside RLP 12-276 | |||
| John Benson Brooks chronology | ||||
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| Cannonball Adderley chronology | ||||
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Alabama Concerto is an album by composer John Benson Brooks featuring saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and trumpeter Art Farmer; it was released on the Riverside label in 1958.[1] For Brooks, it was "an outgrowth of an assignment he had [...] to transcribe for a book some folk recordings made in Alabama by Harold Courlander"; these contrasted with New Orleans jazz recordings, causing Brooks to consider an alternative influence on the history of jazz.[2]: 45
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
Critic John S. Wilson, in a contemporaneous review, observed of the composer: "Working from several rural folk themes, he develops his Concerto through ensembles, written solos and improvised solos played by a quartet".[2]: 45 Concluding in a negative vein, Wilson stated that the album "lacks movement and explicit development [...] the work becomes lost in monotony long before the two full LP sides have been completed."[2]: 46 The Allmusic site awarded the album 3 stars with the review by Scott Yanow stating, "Although not essential, the music is thought-provoking, quite melodic, and looks backwards toward folk music of the 1800s while giving the pieces a 1950s jazz sensibility".[3]