The Complete Teddy Charles Tentet
“Comes a time when you begin to search anew,” said Teddy Charles. But you need “an ensemble consistent with your personal ideas. And you want to use to advantage your own experience gained in playing with everything from a vibesbass duo with Mingus, to the Composers Workshop nine piece group and big bands.” After some thinking about it, he assembled a ten-piece group: The Teddy Charles Tentet. An ensemble that played, as Charles put it, “Jazz of today. Not ten, or two, or fifteen years ago. Not futuristic, experimental stuff. But a representation of many of my favorite jazz performers, using contemporary jazz means, playing in an ensemble organically the aggregate of their individual jazz talents.” As the idea grew, Charles decided to ask some of the most inventive and innovative arrangers and composers to become part of his ensemble. There is so much to hear in the writing, so much going on in the group, so many solo moments of merit that come out at you in short bursts, and so much intensity in the entire performance, that a lot of listening is just about mandatory. Put this CD up on your shelf along with the Miles Davis Capitol sides and the Gerry Mulligan Tentet album. It’s that good.
The Complete Teddy Charles Tentet
Art Farmer (tp), Billy Butterfield (tuba), Eddie Bert (tb), Jim Buffington (Frh), Gigi Gryce, Hal Stein (as), J.R. Monterose, Robert Newman (ts), George Barrow, Sol Schlinger (bars), Teddy Charles (vb), Mal Waldron, Hall Overton (p), Jimmy Raney (g), Teddy Kotick, Addison Farmer (b), Joe “Chiz” Harris, Ed Shaughnessy (d).
Arrangements: Teddy Charles, Mal Waldron, Jimmy Giuffre, Gil Evans, George Russell, and Bob Brookmeyer.
Recorded New York City, 1956.
Tracklisting :
Vibrations / The Quiet Time / The Emperor / You Go To My Head / Lydian M-1 / Nature Boy / Green Blues / Show Time / Word From Bird.