The Jazz Giants Play Harold Arlen: Blues in the Night

4**** By All Music Guide.

Tracklisting:

1. Blues in the Night - Red Garland 5:07
2. It's Only a Paper Moon - Miles Davis 5:25
3. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - Art Tatum 3:55
4. As Long as I Live - Count Basie 3:31
5. My Shining Hour - Joe Pass 4:28
6. Ill Wind (You're Blowin' Me No Good) - Milt Jackson 4:08
7. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) - Wes Montgomery 7:44
8. Come Rain or Come Shine - John Coltrane 8:45
9. Out of This World - Bill Perkins, Bud Shank 7:46
10. That Old Black Magic - Andre Previn 4:35
11. Over the Rainbow [live] - Art Pepper 6:51
12. A Sleepin' Bee [live] - Bill Evans 4:34
13. Get Happy - Dizzy Gillespie 8:04


Review:

"Harold Arlen's songs have such a natural, unforced feeling for jazz and the blues that jazz musicians have long found plenty of room to explore them and take off from there. With marching orders in hand, Fantasy has raided its Riverside, Prestige, Pablo, Contemporary, Galaxy and Milestone archives for a most impressive collection of big names interpreting Arlen in bewilderingly diverse ways. From the young Miles Davis' pathbreaking hard bop "It's Only a Paper Moon" of 1951 to the solo extravaganzas from Art Tatum ("I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues") and Joe Pass ("My Shining Hour"), the late-night elegance of Wes Montgomery's "One for My Baby," a lively exchange between Bill Perkins and Bud Shank on "Out of This World," and the emerging ideas of John Coltrane's "Come Rain or Come Shine," the CD accomplishes its mission on a very high musical level. The above-mentioned musicians' distinguished discmates include Red Garland, Count Basie, Milt Jackson, André Previn, Art Pepper, Bill Evans and Dizzy Gillespie. As usual with this series, not a singer is to be heard (unlike, say, Verve's vocalist-heavy songbook packages), and collectors of these artists should know that all of these tracks have been reissued on CD elsewhere."
- By Richard S. Ginell (AMG)