Mose Allison - Lessons in Living (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival) '1983

Tracks list

Recorded in a live setting in 1982 — the same year as his Middle Class
White Boy album — Lessons in Living is a mixed bag. The material is
terrific, and Mose Allison is in typically fine form. The issue lies more with
the all-star band assembled for the date: bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Billy
Cobham, and soloists Eric Gale (guitarist) and Lou Donaldson ( alto
saxophonist). For starters, Allison didnt need a large band —or any band,
really — to shine. Though he had been absent from the recording scene for
six years until that point, he had continued to perform live and his chops as
both a pianist and a singer are stellar. These players, fine as they are, dont
seem to understand the subtler kind of magic that Allison puts across in a club
setting, and dont know how to lay back enough — this is particularly the
case with Cobham, who is overly busy throughout the date, double-timing already
fast tunes like Wild Man in the Street. Bruce, playing electric bass, has a
wonderful facility to move and shift gears with the pianist, but still feels a
shade behind Cobhams fast and furious beat — the overdriven Your Mind Is
on Vacation is a case in point. That said, Allison feels like he is having the
time of his life. Donaldsons solo on You Are My Sunshine is stirring and raw,
something that feels jarring at first with the wonderfully relaxed groove of
Allisons arrangement, but fits like a glove after a chorus. The stomping pace of
Willie Dixons Seventh Son is a highlight on the set with Cobham lightening his
touch a bit and Allisons vocal is swaggering and tough. The laid-back blues of
Everybody Is Crying Mercy is another gem, with the band holding Allisons blues
loose and easy. Lessons in Living is basically for Allison devotees, but it has
fantastic moments. Ironically, Allison didnt return to recording again for
another three years in 1986 after this set was issued. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklist:
1 01. Lou Donaldson - Lost Mind (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 1982)
(02:49)
1 02. Lou Donaldson - Wild Man on the Loose (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival,
July 1982) (02:22)
1 03. Lou Donaldson - Your Mind Is on Vacation (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival,
July 1982) (03:03)
1 04. Lou Donaldson - You Are My Sunshine (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July
1982) (05:05)
1 05. Lou Donaldson - Seventh Son (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 1982)
(04:54)
1 06. Lou Donaldson - Everybody Cryin Mercy (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival,
July 1982) (03:29)
1 07. Lou Donaldson - Middle Class White Boy (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival,
July 1982) (03:31)
1 08. Lou Donaldson - I Dont Worry About a Thing (Live at Montreux Jazz
Festival, July 1982) (05:30)
1 09. Lou Donaldson - Night Club (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 1982)
(06:55)

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