Bobby Hutcherson - Somewhere In The Night (with Joey DeFrancesco)

The elder statesman of the vibraphone - Bobby Hutcherson - and the fastest gun in organ town - Joey DeFrancesco don't seem like ideal partners on paper, but on record they gel very well.


Label: Kind of Blue Records
Release: 2012


Tracklist:
01. Teddy (9:04)
02. Little B's Poem (8:06)
03. Skj (8:25)
04. Take The Coltrane (9:05)
05. Wise One (11:21)
06. Somewhere In The Night (8:31)
07. My Foolish Heart (8:34)
08. S'wonderful (6:22)

Total Time: 69:32


Personnel: 
Bobby Hutcherson - vibraphone, 
Joey DeFrancesco - Hammond B-3 organ, 
Peter Bernstein - guitar, 
Byron Landham - drums.


Format: MP3 320 kbit/s. All songs are tagged by the book.

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Review by Ken Dryden
Bobby Hutcherson was in his seventies at the time of this live set at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in the fall of 2009, still very much at the top of his game. His band with organist Joey DeFrancesco, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and drummer Byron Landham is a bit unusual, in that there have been relatively few vibes-organ quartets in jazz record dates. But the talented veteran reveals its possibilities, beginning with a romp through his furious bop vehicle 'Teddy' that showcases intense solos by the leader and the organists. Next is Hutcherson's well-known jazz standard 'Little B's Poem', a breezy jazz waltz written for his young son at the dawn of his career. DeFrancesco outdoes himself with his percolating solo that comes at the listener in waves. The quartet sizzles in its burning rendition of Milt Jackson's tasty blues 'SKJ', leading into a hard-charging take of Duke Ellington's blues 'Take the Coltrane'. There are also several standards, including an infectious 'Somewhere in the Night' that puts the spotlight on Bernstein, Hutcherson's lyrical playing in the delicate take of 'My Foolish Heart', and an engaging, energetic version of the Gershwins' 'S Wonderful that leaves the audience wanting more.


Review by Lloyd Sachs
Before Joey DeFrancesco enlisted him for a 2005 album, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson hadn't recorded with an organist since his glory days with Blue Note, when he teamed with Larry Young on Grant Green's Street of Dreams and accompanied Big John Patton on his Let 'Em Roll. In aligning himself with DeFrancesco, today's reigning champ of the Hammond B-3, Hutcherson couldn't have made a higher-profile return to the format.

With his big and busy sound, DeFrancesco can so dominate Somewhere in the Night, a live album recorded in 2009 at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, you may find yourself wondering who the headliner is and who the guest soloist is. Fans of Hutcherson, who has had to scale down his career as he battles a respiratory condition, may wish for a role reversal. But there are plenty of moments in which the DeFrancesco Trio, including drummer Byron Landham and the ultimate organist's guitarist in Peter Bernstein, provides a cozy setting for Hutcherson.

He's a more conservative player now than he was when he introduced one of the two originals presented here, 'Little B's Poem', on his 1965 postbop landmark, Components. But as demonstrated by his breezy, high-octane introduction to Duke Ellington's 'Take the Coltrane' and his wide-open run through 'S Wonderful, Hutcherson can still flat-out play. And flattening his tone to lapidary effect on 'My Foolish Heart', he shows how he can uncover more meaning in a standard through suggestion than many players can at full intensity. His gleaming final notes of the set convey his resilience and continuing relevance.


Review by Dan Bilawsky,
The elder statesman of the vibraphone and the fastest gun in organ town don't seem like ideal partners on paper, but on record they gel quite well. Blue Note vibraphone icon Bobby Hutcherson and the fleet-fingered Joey DeFrancesco initially teamed up for the organist's Organic Vibes (Concord, 2006), and their chemistry was so strong that they couldn't just let that be a one-off pairing.

Somewhere In The Night finds them sharing stage space while entertaining adoring fans at Jazz At Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in the fall of 2009. Hutcherson gets top billing this time, but the issue of ownership doesn't mean a heck of a lot here; Hutcherson, DeFrancesco, and the organist's trio mates — guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Byron Landham — all deliver the goods in sterling fashion.

The album-opening 'Teddy' is powered by Landham's propulsive cymbal work, but DeFrancesco's angular soloing is the attention-grabber. His notes-a-plenty approach, which can be overwhelming at other times, serves him well here. Things continue swimmingly as Hutcherson touches on his well-known 'Little B's Poem' and nods to vibraphone forefather Milt Jackson with a bluesy take on 'SKJ'. Landham tears it up at the tail end of pianist Duke Ellington's 'Take The Coltrane' and Bernstein gets to the heart of the matter during his solo spot on saxophonist John Coltrane's 'Wise One', which starts off in an open, spiritual realm before settling into a straight groove.

The title track finds the soloists making greater use of space in their individual statements, while 'My Foolish Heart' wins the award for most affecting performance. Hutcherson's introductory cadenza places his vibes deep in a dream, his soloing is melodicism distilled to its essence, and his musical thoughts twinkle like the stars in the sky as things wrap up; Landham and DeFrancesco deserve bonus points for their sensitive background work on this one. A hard-swinging S'Wonderful almost seems superfluous after such an emotional rendering, but it ends things in upbeat fashion.

Before Organic Vibes, Hutcherson hadn't really connected with the organ since his mid-sixties meetings with Larry Young on guitarist Grant Green's Street Of Dreams (Blue Note, 1964), and on organist Big John Patton's Let 'Em Roll (Blue Note, 1965), but it's hard to understand why. Hutcherson and DeFrancesco prove to be a perfect match. Perhaps Hutcherson was just biding his time until the real thing came along. 

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L Hammond, The Pirate Bay, where you'll find more jazz organ.