Ivey-Divey

Amazon.com
Clarinetist Don Byron's albums frequently reflect an ongoing battle for control between two sides of his artistic identity: the virtuoso instrumentalist and shrewd conceptualist. Sometimes, in mounting his concepts, which have ranged from a tribute to klezmer king Mickey Katz to an album of tunes by offbeat '30s bandleaders John Kirby and Raymond Scott, he hasn't given his playing free enough rein. With Ivey-Divey, inspired in part by a great 1946 album teaming tenor legend Lester Young with pianist Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich, Byron gives each side of his talent a fair shake. Honoring his source, he offers his own luminous take on tunes from it including "I Cover the Waterfront" and "I've Found a New Baby." While paying homage to Young, though, he cuts loose to deliver his freest and most dazzling performance on record. Emphatic where Young was famously laid back, soaring where Young floated, he joins forces with the brilliant, adaptable young pianist Jason Moran and fearsome drummer Jack DeJohnette (sounding great these days, having pared back his excesses) to create a classic of his own. No standard-issue tribute, Ivey-Divey includes intriguing reworkings of two Miles Davis classics, "Freddie Freeloader" (from Kind of Blue) and "In a Silent Way," and the gleeful original "'Leopold, Leopold ... ,'" a nod to Bugs Bunny's impersonation of conductor Leopold Stokowski. Then there's the boogie woogie classic "The Goon Drag," on which Byron gives a rare sampling of his sound on tenor, joined by trumpeter Ralph Alessi and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. Everything's ivey-divey, and hunky dory as well. --Lloyd Sachs

Product Description
Don Byron digs into a Lester Young classic and much more on Ivey-Divey, the follow up to the critically acclaimed You Are #6. Centered around Byron's effervescent new trio with piano rising star Jason Moran and drumming paragon Jack DeJohnette, Ivey-Divey is a master class in jazz chemistry-a worthy successor in spirit to tenor sax legend Young's mid-'40s trio with Nat "King" Cole and Buddy Rich.

With musicians of this caliber, it's no surprise that Ivey-Divey sizzles with exuberance-the confidant sound of three musicians working at a profound level of empathy. While the spirit of the session may hark back to Lester Young, this is no mere swing down memory lane. Byron and Co. bring an up-to-the minute rhythmic and harmonic sensibility, not to mention improvisational fireworks to their four selections from the Prez repertoire: "I Want to Be Happy," "Somebody Loves Me" (in two equally dazzling, yet substantially different renditions), "I Cover the Waterfront," and "I've Found a New Baby."

In addition to the trio, Ralph Alessi (trumpet) and Lonnie Plaxico (bass) are added to round out the session. The quintet tackles classic Miles Davis repertoire including "In a Silent Way" and "Freddie Freeloader" as well as original Byron compositions.

Ivey-Divey,Don Byron,Blue Note Records,Contemporary Jazz,Jazz,Mainstream Jazz,Modal Music,Pop,Post-Bop,Swing

Average customer rating:

Extreme Highs, but some lows to

Enormous talent but where headed?

6 stars if allowed

Don Byron's best album since his debut!

Ivey-Divey
Don Byron
Manufacturer: Blue Note Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0002UY8W4
Release Date: 2004-09-21

Tracks:

I Want to Be Happy
Somebody Loves Me
I Cover the Waterfront
I've Found A New Baby
Himm
The Goon Drag
Abie the Fishman
Lefty Teachers At Home
Leopold, Leopold
Freddie Freeloader
In A Silent Way
Somebody Loves Me

Amazon.com

Clarinetist Don Byron's albums frequently reflect an ongoing battle for control between two sides of his artistic identity: the virtuoso instrumentalist and shrewd conceptualist. Sometimes, in mounting his concepts, which have ranged from a tribute to klezmer king Mickey Katz to an album of tunes by offbeat '30s bandleaders John Kirby and Raymond Scott, he hasn't given his playing free enough rein. With Ivey-Divey, inspired in part by a great 1946 album teaming tenor legend Lester Young with pianist Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich, Byron gives each side of his talent a fair shake. Honoring his source, he offers his own luminous take on tunes from it including "I Cover the Waterfront" and "I've Found a New Baby." While paying homage to Young, though, he cuts loose to deliver his freest and most dazzling performance on record. Emphatic where Young was famously laid back, soaring where Young floated, he joins forces with the brilliant, adaptable young pianist Jason Moran and fearsome drummer Jack DeJohnette (sounding great these days, having pared back his excesses) to create a classic of his own. No standard-issue tribute, Ivey-Divey includes intriguing reworkings of two Miles Davis classics, "Freddie Freeloader" (from Kind of Blue) and "In a Silent Way," and the gleeful original "'Leopold, Leopold ... ,'" a nod to Bugs Bunny's impersonation of conductor Leopold Stokowski. Then there's the boogie woogie classic "The Goon Drag," on which Byron gives a rare sampling of his sound on tenor, joined by trumpeter Ralph Alessi and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. Everything's ivey-divey, and hunky dory as well. --Lloyd Sachs

Album Description

Don Byron digs into a Lester Young classic and much more on Ivey-Divey, the follow up to the critically acclaimed You Are #6. Centered around Byron's effervescent new trio with piano rising star Jason Moran and drumming paragon Jack DeJohnette, Ivey-Divey is a master class in jazz chemistry-a worthy successor in spirit to tenor sax legend Young's mid-'40s trio with Nat "King" Cole and Buddy Rich.

Customer Reviews:

Extreme Highs, but some lows to.......2005-04-24

This is a line up for all times, especially in today jazz world. Out of all the modern jazz cd's I have heard, this has the best climaxes of the all. Jack Dejohnette, one of the great jazz/fushion of all times, and Jason Moran (an eccentric piano player influced by Jaki Byard and Andrew Hill) play an amazing groove, but it is actually Byron who fails the record at time. This record, which is a tribute to tenor genius Leter Young and his 1946 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole, is just simply to long. The Lester tunes are very strong, in fact "I've Found A New Baby" will give you goosbumps. It is simply the great musical moment that I have heard come out in newly recorded music in a long time (that is saying sometimg). And the intro to "In A Silent Way" feature Don playing clarinet as if he were John Coltrane. Very breath-taking and interesting. There are some great originals here as well. In fact this cd is amazing upon first listen, and still does amaze me, but it is just to long, and the songs continue way to long. I just wish they would end sometimes, but they just keep going, sort of like this review. The clarinet is not effective in that situation, it just sounds like noodling. With that said every song is great up to the point where it should end, and Don seems to not want to stop. I still strongly recommend this because some of this just needs to be heard

Enormous talent but where headed?.......2005-04-16

I still think Tuskugee Experiments is Mr Byron's most satisfying album. There is no doubting the talent on offer on IVEY DIVEY but to me it sounds like a practice session or at least an album suggested by the A and R man at EMI rather than something fully in tune with (what I perceive to be) Mr Byron's artistic possibilities. When he was playing I confess I was thinking of Jimmy Guiffre and his great trio work of "free" music on ECM and his other great album on Columbia and what the trio before us are capable of - my God!! Either get together some great arrangements or let the music go where it may whereas the album before us seems to fall between those two stools.

6 stars if allowed.......2004-11-19

This is the best clarinet featured cd that I've ever heard. The only real question I find myself having about this cd is whether the old standards are better than the new material or vice-versa. In the past I have not been overwhelmed by Byron's material so orginally passed this by but I am glad that I took the leap.

Don Byron's best album since his debut!.......2004-09-22

"Ivey-Divey" may very well be clarinetist Don Byron's finest album since his debut over a decade ago. Where most of his previous albums seem to have been stylistically limited by genre conventions in order to properly market them, this effort showcases Byron the improvisor instead of Byron the conceptualist.

Joined by piano phenomenon Jason Moran and elder statesman and masterful drummer Jack DeJohnette, Byron and co. stretch out on a varied selection of tunes, half of them old standards associated with Lester Young, who also once lead a similar bass-less trio. But this is no nostalgic look back to jazz's humbler origins. Classic standards are torn asunder and re-imagined as vehicles for extended improvisation. Nothing is sacred on this disc. Even an old chestnut like "Somebody Loves Me" gets deconstructed and utilized as a springboard for intensive rhythmic, harmonic and melodic free-interplay. An acoustic take on Miles Davis' electric classic "In a Silent Way" provides the group with a launching pad into the stratosphere, transforming the original ambient melody into an anthem of catharsis. It is in their expansion and elaboration of these tunes that their interpretive skills come to the fore. Although the group is occasionally joined by bass and trumpet it is the core trio and their telepathic interplay that dominate the proceedings here.

Easily one of the best jazz albums to come out so far this year, Byron finally makes good on all the promise alluded to on albums past by finally delivering the goods.

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