1975 · Album
Like Someone in Love
Recorded 1975 at Bourbon Street Jazz Club, Toronto, Canada · Telarc · Produced by Not specified in verified sources
Toronto, 1975: Desmond Finding His Way
Every precious unreleased note from Desmond is worth hearing, even if the room itself worked against him.
Paul Desmond walked into the Bourbon Street Jazz Club in Toronto in 1975 carrying habits from his decades with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and a reputation for melodic refinement that didn't always travel well to unfamiliar rooms. What captures this session is exactly that tension — a saxophonist trying to settle into new company, new acoustics, new rhythms, but not quite surrendering to them yet. The live recording finds him working through material he knew cold, and that familiarity is where he sounds most like himself. When Desmond played songs he'd lived with for years, the stiffness of adaptation fell away.
The recording itself carries the flaws of its moment and place. Bourbon Street's live room was cramped and boxy, the kind of space that flattened tone and made clarity difficult. AllMusic reviewer Richard S. Ginell noted the sonic limitations but emphasized what mattered — that every note Desmond played on this night deserved attention, regardless of the technical circumstances. He was still searching for equilibrium with his Toronto collaborators, still the visitor rather than the resident. That searching quality runs through the whole album. It's not the sound of a saxophonist at his peak, and it's not a studio session where he could control every breath. It's what happened when Desmond showed up to play with people he was still learning.
This album matters mainly to listeners already committed to Desmond's work, or to those curious about how he adapted when he left the contexts that had defined him. The 1992 Telarc release brought these recordings out of the vault nearly two decades later, and the 2020 reissue as part of the Mosaic Records boxed set The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings restored them to their proper chronology. It's essential only if you want the full picture of Desmond in transition — not essential if you want to hear him at his most assured.
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