BEN WEBSTER - GENTLE BEN

Tracks:

 Side 1
 1. Ben’s Blues
 2. The Man I Love
 
Side 2
 1. My Nephew Bent
 2. How Long This Has Been Going On
 
Side 3
1. Sweet Georgia Brown
 2. Don’t Blame Me
 
Side 4
 1. Did You Call
 2. Barcelona Shout

Description:

“…Webster’s trademark sensual sound is on full display and, of course, he’s backed by Montoliu, an outstanding Spanish piano veteran who accompanied all the great jazz artists passing through Europe…This is one of the first releases by Analogue Productions pressed at their new in-house pressing plant Quality Record Pressings, and the record bears a close resemblance in appearance to records from Pallas – beautiful looking and perfectly quiet…The superb 200-gram LP comes in a rice paper sleeve and jacket of heavy cardboard…Highest Recommendation.” Recording = 10/10; Music = 8.5/10 — Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi+, Issue 81

This recording was made 10 months before Ben Webster’s death in 1972. Webster, who had left the United States in 1965 to settle in Europe — first in Copenhagen and then in Amsterdam — was visiting fellow musician and friend Tete Montoliu in Barcelona. Webster and pianist Montoliu went back a ways, having played together regularly in Webster’s Copenhagen days. In fact, Montoliu cited Webster and Don Byas as his two chief musical influences. Webster and Montoliu understood each other deeply, and their comfort with on another is palpable in this recording. Their accompaniment of one another is seamless. On board with these two is Montoliu’s regular working trio-mates, Eric Peter on bass and Peer Wyboris on drums.