By RS116906
01-Apr-2011

Wonderful Surprise!  

Wow! I've been listening to jazz for about 28 years now and never heard those two superb musicians before a student of mine recommended me to listen to Pege on Youtube.

Aladar have an amazing technique. He can play uptempo with excellent accuracy and can also improvise at any tempo. He knows the jazz language very well and can penetrate through jazz styles. His dynamics are superb and he also isn't a usual bassist who plays walking bass all the time. You can hear that in the third tune while Norris is improvising. Norris is a wonderful pianist, has superb technique, great feel and sound that really made me enjoy his solos.

The CD is in a superb quality (I bought the 320kbps) and it is a very good example of the art of duo, piano and bass. Another Enja amazing recording!

A few details about the musicians: Aladár Pege (8 October 1939 - 23 September 2006), was a jazz musician from Hungary. He was well-known for his work and was dubbed "the Paganini of double bass". He was chosen as best soloist of Europe in 1970, performed at Carnegie Hall and worked with Herbie Hancock. This was quite rare during the Communist Era, when Hungarian (and other Eastern bloc countries) artists were seriously restricted from foreign travel. He spent his last decades teaching at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

Walter Norris (born December 27, 1931) is a pianist known primarily for his work inside the free jazz community. Through his career he played and recorded with many jazz greats as Jack Sheldon, Mose Allison, Ornette Coleman (1st album), Charlie Mingus, Joe Henderson, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis and others. Great pianist, but sadly a bit underrated.

This recording is warmly recommended for any jazz lover especially those who have experience with some light avant-garde and for any post bop and modern jazz fans. Very enjoyable live recording! :-) 5 stars in my scale!

-Raz
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