Kenny Burrell

[Durium]

KENNY BURRELL

Kenny Burrell recorded this Soul Call album in the Rudy Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs with a quintet featuring himself on the guitar, Will Davis on piano, Bill Gene English on drums, Martin Rivera on bass and Ray Barreto on conga. The tracklist contains 7 tunes (the original Prestige only six) and I liked Soul Call and Mark One, two blues themes. It brings us some solid jazz guitar played by a skilled improviser, good to play in the background when you have visitors or to dream away ......

Soul Call

Keep swinging

Durium

[BruceH]

I love Kenny Burrell. And I do plan to keep swinging.

[marcello]

People forget what a huge crossover influence Kenny Burrell was to guitarists of many genres in the 60's.

A real Master.

Here's one of my photos of him from the 70's:

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I ignored this album for decades and only bought it last year. What an album! This really is one, when I heard it, that made me say, "Oh, I could have been listening to this for 40 years!"

There's a sense in which this is something of a follow-up to "Midnight blue". But the title track goes WAY beyond anything on that album, with fabulous playing by Ray Barretto and a real conversation between him and Kenny. It absolutely flattened me!

MG

[Shawn]

This is a fantastic album, one of my favorites of his 60's output...right up there with Tender Gender. Need to pull this one out and give it a spin (now to just figure out which box it's packed in...).

[felser]

This is a fantastic album, one of my favorites of his 60's output...right up there with Tender Gender. Need to pull this one out and give it a spin (now to just figure out which box it's packed in...).

I give an additional strong on both Soul Call and Tender Gender. Both proved to be well beyond what I expected of them based on the personnel, and rank as two of my favorite Burrell's. Mid 60's was definitely a peak period for Burrell.

Edited June 29, 2008 by felser

[clifford_thornton]

I think a little KB goes a long, long way, but when I hear a little bit I tend to enjoy it. Like the track that Durium posted, for example.

[Shawn]

I'd rather hear John McLaughlin sew up a hole in his Suday mufti than hear Burrell fucking sleepwalk through even his "hottest" pluck-pluck-pluck, let alone Charlie Christian or that dude who played with Ernest Tubb (in my seventh decade, the memory has started to go). Verdict: to the extent Kenny Burrell is a "positive" influence on ANYTHING is directly proportional to the misguided-but-popular notion jazz is dead, jazz is boring, jazz is square, jazz is for long haired "squares" as we used to call them and so forth. More's the pity but anything less is simply not true: swing swang STUNK.

Do you ever have anything positive to say about ANYONE? Oh shit...Burrell has had a successful career...that means he MUST be a fucking hack. Another thread gets derailed by your negative, pompous, self-righteous horse shit.

Edited June 29, 2008 by Shawn

[marcello]

Is that a compliment about Burrell's influence, Mr. Marcello, or a criticism?

It's a compliment.

It's been a while that I've heard him ( especially live), but he is a master guitarist.

I heard a recording that was made recently that certainly was a bore , but everyone has a bad recording or two.

[user0815]

This is a fantastic album, one of my favorites of his 60's output...right up there with Tender Gender. Need to pull this one out and give it a spin (now to just figure out which box it's packed in...).

i gues i really have to buy this album (soul call). i like "midnight blue" and "bluesy burrell" very much.

but, where can i get a cd-copy of "tender gender"? it's out of print ... or is it not? has there ever been a cd reissue of "tender gender"?

[user0815]

Is that a compliment about Burrell's influence, Mr. Marcello, or a criticism? In my strongly held, fact-based opinion, it's far more the latter. Burrell might be a "master" but of what? The guy is a workman, nothing wrong with that, most of us have to work. But he's also a hack of limited imagination and, to his credit, limited ambition, so the two are usually well-matched. Because he came up in the combo era he got more attention and chances than his meager talent ever deservered; that a guy like Chet Atkins, who's about ten times the player, good and bad, a Burrell ever could be is excoriated while Kenny's plonk plonk, ah, the sweet spot... twing! Is generally praised seems unjust. Kenny Burrell might not be a bore personally-- I've heard different reports and simply assume he is complex, like most of us: a sweetheart to some, an ass to others--but he is certainly one the most boring, tiresome jazz players of his era to have made so many sides. To the extent Kenny gets not-dead points, as I myself do too, fine but Goldberg, if you were listening to this shit for 40 years you'd be even more tired of it than I am. I'd rather hear John McLaughlin sew up a hole in his Suday mufti than hear Burrell fucking sleepwalk through even his "hottest" pluck-pluck-pluck, let alone Charlie Christian or that dude who played with Ernest Tubb (in my seventh decade, the memory has started to go). Verdict: to the extent Kenny Burrell is a "positive" influence on ANYTHING is directly proportional to the misguided-but-popular notion jazz is dead, jazz is boring, jazz is square, jazz is for long haired "squares" as we used to call them and so forth. More's the pity but anything less is simply not true: swing swang STUNK.

i really don't understand your argument ... no one here has stated that kenny burrell is the living proof that chet atkins wasn't a great guitar player ... no doubt, there have been a ton of great guitar players, especially in country and rockabilly music ... chet atkins, hank garland , cliff gallup ,grady martin and so on ... but, what does that tell us about kenny burrell?

if you don't like kenny burrell than go and listen to chet atkins ... where's the problem?

Edited June 29, 2008 by user0815

[jazzbo]

Okay, we all understand Brian's position clearly now. Perhaps even more clearly in this new more conventional less uber hip style of his.

Soul Call is a really good one, in my opinion.

Kenny has the most beautiful tone, warm, full, consistent top to bottom, and fluid supple lines. What a player!

[JSngry]

Burrell up until about the mid/late'70s is mostly fine with me. When he was good, which wasn't always, but was usually, he hit that urbane-with-more-chops-than-Grant-Green zone that many think is where Grant Green actually resided but didn't (and no dis to either man, not by a long shot). The BN, Prestige (both times around), Cadet sides range from good to dandy to, occasionally, superb (the Vanguard trio w/Davis & Haynes in particular), the Verves get kinda bogged down in "concept", but the one CTI is GROOVY. So, for about 20 years, ca. 1957-1977, his batting average was pretty damn good, and his slugging percentage, tho not HOF caliber, was not unrespectable.

After that, and probably not coincidentally, Helen Keane took over his career, Concord, a.o. beckoned, and that's the stuff that I can (and do) live just fine without. And that's been more than 20 years.

But hey, the cat was a voice in/of his time - Detroit, hard-bop/blues player committed to his craft, ready for any and all calls in/of his time, ready to deal (and in context, he always dealt, and dealt well) and if now that that time/context has passed means that he shoulda' been thinkin' about that then, well, hey, wtf is that all about anyway? If I'd been doing that, I'd have invented Microsoft instead of spent my time just being me.

But I didn't, so hey. I'm glad like a mo that Sonny Sharrock was Sonny Sharrock, and I'm just as glad that Kenny Burrell was/is Kenny Burrell. I kinda wish, though, that Charlie Byrd had been somebody else. But that's just me.

Also, me being a hick and all, urbanity is a quality which I do appreciate. I know that to some, it's just a synonym for boring, but for me, it means...urbane. Slick on top, grit underneath. And KB, yeah, that cat was urbane during that 20 or so year run. Slick (in massive quantity) and grit (which sometimes you gotta know to look for, but if you do, you find it rather easily). If you can't hear it, you can't hear it, hey, ok, fair enough, don't bother adjusting your set. But I can, and in my world, that's really all I give a fuck about.

[Larry Kart]

What Jim said. Your move, Morehouse.

[Chuck Nessa]

Burrell, Flanagan, Hank Jones and a bunch of others were relatively "faceless" players of high quality emerging from Detroit at the time. They never mess anything up but never inspire greatness. YMMV.

[JSngry]

I don't find Burrell "faceless" at all. Readily identifiable tone & articulation. One of the more easily identifiable guitarists of his time, actually, imo.

Now as for "greatness", hey, it is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't. But it's not all that there is either way.

[T.D.]

but, where can i get a cd-copy of "tender gender"? it's out of print ... or is it not? has there ever been a cd reissue of "tender gender"?

"Tender Gender" along with one other album was released on CD as "Soulero", which I think is also OOP, but sometimes shows up on eBay.

[Chuck Nessa]

You chose to ignore "relatively" and I stand by that. Farlow, Raney, Crawford, Green, etc are much more distinctive "stylists" in my book.

[JSngry]

No, I'm not ignoring that. Burrell is as distinctive as any of those guys in my book, if by that you mean "readily identifiable".

As you correctly stated earlier, YMMV on that, but this is where mine gets me.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes, I can identify KB's playing. I just don't think it is very interesting (for me) beyond his technical skills.

[7/4]

Yes, I can identify KB's playing. I just don't think it is very interesting (for me) beyond his technical skills.

Same here. I mean...hey, he's OK. Just never really knocked me out. Maybe I need to hear more...

[JSngry]

My move? I pretty much agree with John Sangrey except that Burrell's urbanity is mostly by-the-motions bullshit, over and over and over and over again. To the extent any of his records merit re-listening is due to others. I don't recall calling him faceless, although as far as discography goes, if he was the invisible man, neither my life nor yours would have been diminished in the least. Mr. Nessa has it right but I'll go farther, again: Burrell has, mostly, the qualities of the "best" studio musicians except, translated to the stage, there is no reason for their existence. How many 100s (1000s?) of hours do we have to suffer through plinkety-plonk until we get to, even, a "groovy" part? Does Kenny's 50s and 60s work suck? No, he's perfectly competent, perhaps even tastey, and, almost without exception, a fucking snooze, and perhaps thee single most prolific emblem for why Jazz Is Boring. Also, having made his bones early, why couldn't he do more, something else? We can all name the exceptions who did (and do) and while yeah, you can say we need a yardstick of gutless mediocrity, I say such was well-established early and need not be repeated over and over and over again. Is Kenny Burrell a "primitive," incapable of conceptual thought, and also an inate conservative, incapable of significant growth? Apparently so, or there are other reasons; regardless "respectable" doesn't mean it deserves respect, or at least not any more than an equally "reliable" milkmaid, railsplitter, or ornithologist. There are, meanwhile, 100s of guitarists across all genres who looked at the goddamn instrument and came up with about notes and tones and chords far less ball-less than Kenny "Cash The Check" Burrell.

This is all okay, of course, but the Phony Reverence we're supposed to have for this stultifying hack is just silly. He's a craftsman, nothing wrong with that, and nothing except vision, guts, excitement, challenge, harmonic and rhythmic supplesse etc that we all can't get more of elsewhere, including Billy Byrd (who was not, I note, related to Charlie.)

This is all good, fiesty, rhetoric, but unfortunately it doesn't hold up to most of the music under question, unless you've recently bumped your head & are are now confusing Kenny Burrell with, say, Barry Gailbrath.

[JSngry]

Yes, I can identify KB's playing. I just don't think it is very interesting (for me) beyond his technical skills.

Fair enough. His vocabulary is, mostly, "communal" (which is decidedly not the same as "generic"), but I quite often find interest in his tone and phrasing, his "personality". Subdued yet substantive is how I hear it.

[7/4]

Actually, I know I need to hear more...

.

[Free For All]

Ellington is Forever

I had this as an AOTW some time ago. I'd have to say I liked it as much for the guests as for Burrell himself.