Five-Star Collection... Jimmy Raney

Jimmy Raney Quintet

Jimmy Raney Plays

There are a number of guitarists in jazz today who choose good notes, show facility in playing them, and have "that swing" which "it don't mean a thing if you ain't got". Jimmy Raney has all of these qualifications, and with them a thinking content in his playing which sets him at the top of his division as the significant guitarist.

This album is important because it brings Jimmy into the foreground after playing a subordinate role for too long. His two-chorus solos have a unity and clarity to them that represent his best recorded work to date. For faithful reproduction of his sound, this album is also a high-water mark. In addition, he has offered more convincing evidence of his talents as a composer. (...)

The group itself is a corps of the core of jazz, the small unit. (...)

The cover is by David Young, a young painter from Boston whose feeling for jazz enabled him to direct his artistry into an effective delineation of the subject at hand.

*Ira Gitler (from the liner notes)*

The Raney guitar, long a feature on numerous combos' cuttings, gets its own day in the sun at last in this fine LP comprising four double-length performances. Raney is teamed with a tenor man described on the cover as "Sven Coolson", though you will recognize him immediately as Lars Getzberg. Thus the overall result is similar to many of the sides Stan and Jimmy cut together for Roost, except that Jimmy gets the longer solos.

Jimmy wrote the three originals, which have a Tristanoish touch in their charming unison lines. Signal is the most attractive. Jimmy has found a good compromise between the muffled Tal Farlow sound and the "live" tone of the older—Charlie Christian—school. And he swings always.

Rhythm section is excellent, though the solo passages of Hall Overton (who sounds like a classical musician dipping his fingers into bop) and bassist Red Mitchell are the weakest spots of the disc. Midnight, the old Monk tune, is handled in a most relaxed fashion as Raney and Getz weave their way in and out of its still alluring chord structure. Frank Isola’s drumming is effectively discreet throughout both sides. *Down Beat, Chicago, August 26, 1953 [5 stars]*

Side 1

1 - Motion

(Jimmy Raney)

2 - Lee

(Jimmy Raney)

Side 2

3 - Signal

(Jimmy Raney)

4 - 'Round About Midnight

(Thelonious Monk)

Jimmy Raney (guitar), Stan Getz as "Sven Coolson" (tenor sax),

Hall Overton (piano), Keith "Red" Mitchell (bass), Frank Isola (drums).

Recorded at WOR Recording Studios, New York City, April 23, 1953