Harper Brothers "Remembrance"

[jnorek]

 

Is anybody else here enamored with The Harper Brothers "Remembrance" live album from the Village Vanguard?  Originally released in 1990, I bought it on a whim from a CD Club at age sixteen and still think it's one of the best hard bop albums I've ever heard.

 

I find it truly bizarre that this album is totally forgotten and has never been reissued on vinyl in spite of reaching #1 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts back in the day. This record truly swings!!

Edited February 1, 2023 by jnorek
Added photo

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Listening to it on Spotify.  Some fine playing and excellent sound.

[Dan Gould]

I liked it more then than I have since.

At the time, fit the young lion Marsalis conception very well but comes across now as a very competent reproduction of a style from 25+ years before.

As far as the idea of a vinyl reissue - are there any expensive remastering of LPs from that era? They seem stuck on the originals and not the imitators. Also I sometimes feel like the mastering is a good example of the over-brightness that sometimes plagued CDs of the era.

[jlhoots]

I always liked that album.

[jnorek]

4 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

Listening to it on Spotify.  Some fine playing and excellent sound.

Glad you dig it!  I know the album isn't breaking new ground, but it is still a great live hard bop album.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I seem to have traded in or sold all of my Harper Brothers CDs so I cannot listen to this one anymore. I did like their music and I seem to remember seeing them live back around the time of "Artistry" (1992).

It's weird that I don't have any of their music in my music library as I'm almost positive that I had all 4 of their CDs - "The Harper Brothers", "Remembrance - Live at the Village Vanguard", "Artistry" & "You Can Hide Inside The Music". All I can think is that this must have been back at a time when I was deleting mp3 music files from my PC if I sold the original CD. I did that for while back then.

[sidewinder]

Yeah, I saw them around 1992/3 too.

[Rabshakeh]

9 hours ago, jnorek said:

I find it truly bizarre that this album is totally forgotten and has never been reissued on vinyl in spite of reaching #1 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts back in the day. This record truly swings!!

I think that the Young Lions hype did lasting damage to the groups and artists caught up in it. 

Whatever you think of the Harpers, Harrison/Blanchard and the Fo'tet were really great groups, and they don't deserve to have been forgotten as they have.

[Justin V]

I like this and the other Harper Brothers album I have, so I'll play it soon.  Stephen Scott was such a busy player in the '90s and '00s; I wish that he were still as active now.

[Eric]

10 hours ago, jnorek said:

 

Is anybody else here enamored with The Harper Brothers "Remembrance" live album from the Village Vanguard?  Originally released in 1990, I bought it on a whim from a CD Club at age sixteen and still think it's one of the best hard bop albums I've ever heard.

 

I find it truly bizarre that this album is totally forgotten and has never been reissued on vinyl in spite of reaching #1 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts back in the day. This record truly swings!!

Could that record really be 33 years old?  My goodness.

Saw them live at a Kansas City jazz festival around that time, enjoyed the show (and this CD).  Will have to pull it out and listen.

[felser]

I also saw them live ca. 1988-1989 outdoors at Penn's Landing.  Really good show except for Javon Jackson, who was really having an off night.    
Also saw Philip Harper with Blakey a year or two earlier, and and he tore it up.  Benny Green's very first gig with the Jazz Messengers, whenever that would have been.  Jean Toussaint on tenor.

Edited February 1, 2023 by felser

[kh1958]

Philip Harper plays from time to time at Smalls. I heard him there a couple of times a few years ago, with Miki Yamanaka on piano. It was a pretty good group, actually; I'd buy a CD if there was one.