Virtuosi (album)
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| Virtuosi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1976 | |||
| Recorded | June 28, 1967 Nola's Penthouse Sound Studios, NYC | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 33:11 | |||
| Label | Improvising Artists IAI 373844 | |||
| Producer | Paul Bley | |||
| Paul Bley chronology | ||||
| ||||
Virtuosi is an album by drummer Barry Altschul, pianist Paul Bley and bassist Gary Peacock recorded in 1967 and released on Bley's own Improvising Artists label in 1976.[1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| MusicHound Jazz | [3] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz | [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [5] |
| The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz | [6] |
The editors of AllMusic awarded the album 2½ stars, and reviewer Eugene Chadbourne suggested that listeners could find the music "either endlessly fascinating if the time is there to focus on every detail, or a kind of irrelevant background patter whose components could be reordered endlessly without any change in meaning."[2]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings noted that the album "sounds... very much like Bley's own trio work of the period," and stated: "Bley... tends to dominate proceedings, though Altschul's continuous flow of ideas would be impressive were it registered more distinctly; not even CD gives a faithful rendition of some of his softer figures and effects."[4]
Writing for MusicHound Jazz, Steve Holtje commented: "to hear this trio's kaleidoscopic deployment of its considerable yet restrained resources is to witness improvisational interaction at the highest level."[3]