Jimmy Smith - Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? '1964

24bit

Artist	Jimmy Smith Related artists
Album name	Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Country
Date	1964
Genre	Soul-Jazz
Play time	34:45
Format / Bitrate	24 BIT Stereo 1420 Kbps / 44.1 kHz
Media	WEB
Size	1.37Â GB
Price	Download $0.95

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Tracks list

Tracklist:

A1 Slaughter On Tenth Evenue
Written-By â€“ Richard Rodgers 7:04
A2 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (Part 1)
Written-By â€“ Don Kirkpatrick, Keith Knox 4:20
A3 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (Part 2)
Written-By â€“ Don Kirkpatrick, Keith Knox 4:52
B1 John Brown's Body
Written-By â€“ Traditional 5:10
B2 Wives And Lovers
Written-By â€“ Burt Bacharach, Hal David 3:14
B3 Women Of The World
Written-By â€“ Riziero Ortolani 5:45
B4 Bluesette
Written-By â€“ Toots Thielemans 3:37

The combination of organist Jimmy Smith teamed with Oliver Nelson's big band
featuring Nelson and Claus Ogerman's arrangements has arguably yielded mixed
results. "Walk on the Wild Side" is probably the most acclaimed and potent of
the pairings, while "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" produces more questions
than answers. The music tends to be corny and overly dramatic, based in
soul-jazz and boogaloo; it's dated even for this time period (1964) and a bit
bland. Disparate elements clash rather than meld, the title track and "Slaughter
on Tenth Avenue" being perfect examples. If you can get beyond the hokey 007
theatrics, patriotic splashes, and sleigh bells, you do hear Smith jamming.
Typical repeated two-note accents heard from the big band behind Smith do not
urge him upwards -- during "Pts. 1 & 2" of the title track, this specific
element identifies and bogs down the piece -- but the quicker second segment is
a better, carefree, post-bop boogaloo. Smith is left behind on the melody of
"Women of the World," and is submerged on "Slaughter." Of the more substantive
material, Smith leads on the breezy waltz "Wives & Lovers," and thankfully gets
to strut his stuff for "John Brown's Body," with the big band in the background.
The very best is left for last on a classic take of "Bluesette," another waltz
where the horns accent and chatter, flutes soar, and Smith flies. A curiosity in
his discography, for some an "experiment" that never worked, and for others an
interesting aside, one wonders what Smith really thought of this project after
the fact, considering his far greater works.