Kessel's Blues, Lit From Within
Barney Kessel's guitar meets Bobby Hutcherson's vibraphone for a relaxed, swinging blues-tinged session.
The collaborator who gives this album its character is vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Kessel has always been a guitarist who thinks in chords and inversions, and Hutcherson's mallet sound, bright and rounded, sits next to that voicing without crowding it. The result is a front line that feels unhurried and conversational rather than competitive, which is the main thing a listener notices early on.
The rhythm section does its job without drawing attention to itself. Kenny Barron on piano keeps the harmonies supple, and Rufus Reid and Ben Riley hold a steady swing underneath. Nothing here is experimental. It is a working band playing blues-based material with real ease, and that comfort is the album's appeal.
By 1988 Kessel was a veteran who had spent decades as a first-call studio player and a respected small-group leader, so this record reads as a late-career session from a musician who knows exactly what he wants. It is not a place to start with Kessel. Listeners new to him will get more from earlier work. But for those already fond of his playing, this is a pleasant, well-made evening of blues and swing, and Hutcherson's presence is the reason it stands apart from his other sessions.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel, Volume 3: "To Swing or Not to Swing" 1955
Barney Kessel, Volume 1: Easy Like 1956
Some Like It Hot 1959
Feeling Free 1969
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
