George Wein is best known as the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and an enthusiastic impresario who became instrumental in jump-starting jazz festivals in New York City in the early '70s, but
Wein has also recorded as a pianist and singer from time to time. This reissue of 13 tracks from the long-unavailable Atlantic LP
Wein, Women and Song is combined with nine more selections from a 1992 session that he never released, featuring three separate groups.
Wein's friendly sounding vocals are rather soft and mellow on the earlier dates, with a bit of vibrato on the end of nearly every phrase, though the trumpet solos by either
Ruby Braff (trading licks with tenor saxophonist Sammy Margolis on a superb treatment of "You're Lucky to Me") or
Bobby Hackett (with fine muted backgrounds on the melancholy "I'm Through with Love") add something special to each song. Surprisingly, the music from
Wein's later session, which he initially rejected as unsatisfactory, finds him a much more confident singer in much snappier arrangements.
Warren Vache, Jr. continues the tradition of
Wein having a strong trumpeter on hand, and the playing of guitarist
Howard Alden is simply superb, especially on the lively take of "I'm Shooting High."
Wein likes to poke fun at his own musical abilities, describing the initial LP as "relatively well accepted...only my relatives bought the record," but his consistent ability to put together swinging groups of all-stars to accompany his concerts and occasional recordings can't be discounted, so this entertaining CD shouldn't disappoint anyone familiar with
George Wein's somewhat sporadic but long career as a performer. ~ Ken Dryden