Lucky Thompson & Me

JM-2065-2 (2010) HEINZ VON HERMANN Lucky Thompson & Me In a great live concert, in a great shape, the formidable saxophone (Tenor & Baritone) and flute player presents a Tribute CD to the genious of Lucky Thompson, as well as a Tribute CD to his own 70th Birthday! With Mario Gonzi (d), Uli Langthaler (b) and Erwin Schmidt (p). Gratulations! Heinz von Hermann is well known by playing in the important German Big Bands, especially the band of Peter Herbolzheimer. On the other side he was very active as composer and bandleader of smaller combos! The result is a number of very nice CDs under his name. He always showed a good feeling for the themes of his albums: Sometimes he emphasizes one of his (many) instruments (Napo and Giant Flute - here he shows his skills on the alto fl ute), or an atmosphere (Ballad Poetry) or a tribute to one of the big personalities of jazz history (like Hi, Bix! - Bix Beiderbeckes - or A Taste Of T. - Thelonious Monk). The present live double album has even two themes: the fi rst CD honors the very interesting saxophonist Lucky Thompson (born 16.6.1924 as Eli Thompson in Columbia, S.C., died at the age of 81 year July 30th 2005 in Seattle). In the bloom of the American Big Band area Lucky left his tracks, played a.o. with Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk and he was participating in the famous Walkin' recordings of Miles Davis. Heinz von Hermann presents here a nice selection of Thompson compositions. On the second CD Hermann celebrates himself and his seventieth birthday with a choice of his best original compositions. He is companied here by his favorite musicians: the smart Erwin Schmidt on piano, the steady Uli Langthaler on bass and the dynamic Mario Gonzi on drums! Album liner notes This eloquent tribute to the late, great Eli Lucky Thompson was recorded by the well-integrated Heinz von Hermann Quartet in Austria's Jazzclub Drosendorf a little more than a year after Lucky's death in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 81 - and just one week after Heinz's 70th birthday. A long-time admirer of Thompson, Heinz built his tribute programme from numbers recorded by Lucky between 1963 and 1973. He says, Lucky was a real hero of mine, but I don't think he got the recognition he deserved. He was a most versatile instrumentalist - he played great swing tenor and great bebop tenor - and always in a highly lyrical way. He also did pioneering work in bringing the soprano saxophone back into jazz favour in the early 1960s. In his Down Beat review of Lucky Thompson's 1964 Prestige album, Lucky Strikes, Dan Morgenstern perceptively observed: With this album, Thompson demonstrates beyond dispute that he must be counted among the masters - both as a peerless instrumentalist and as a creative musician of the first rank. Heinz left his native Vienna in 1958 and moved to Germany, where he worked with Jamaican trombonist Herman Wilson. He then joined the Peter Herbolzheimer Septet and, after a freelancing break, he became a regular member of Herbolzheimer's celebrated Rhythm Combination & Brass in the late 1970s. In addition to Lucky Thompson, Heinz's great heroes are Sonny Rollins, Pepper Adams, Harry Carney and Hubert Laws. For this session, Heinz called upon three top-class musicians from his native Vienna - pianist Erwin Schmidt, bassist Uli Langthaler and drummer Mario Gonzi. Schmidt has worked with, among many other familiar names, Mark Murphy, Lew Tabackin, Ed Thigpen and Clark Terry. Langthaler has provided bass backing for Billy Harper, Leo Wright, Ack van Rooyen and Philip Catherine, and Mario Gonzi has given drum support to Buddy DeFranco, Johnny Griffin, Claudio Roditi and Roberta Gambarini, to name just a few top-class artists. All the arrangements were written by Heinz, who is featured on tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone and flute, all of which he plays with great commitment and command. The opening number, Fillet Of Soul, is a funky minor theme with unorthodox changes. Throughout the albu