Dan Fogel – 15 West – Laughing Waters Records

by | Oct 2, 2007 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Dan Fogel – 15 West – Laughing Waters Records – DF 1949, 54:52 **** [www.danfogel.org]:

(Dan Fogel, B-3 organ; O’Donel Levy, guitar; Pete Chavez, tenor sax; Webb Thomas, drums)

Lately almost as many new CDs of trios or quartets with B-3 Hammond have been coming across my desk as of female vocalists. This one, however, went on my Listen Now stack instead of my Listen Later stack because the liner notes were by Nat Hentoff.  And he had plenty of story to tell about Dan. He was brought up in Atlantic City and freaked out at age 10 when he heard a Groove Holmes’ track on the radio.  His aunt was Helen Forrest, vocalist with Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He started piano lessons and at age 13 already performed at a club on Kentucky Avenue with his trio which included Harvey Mason on drums. By age 16 he was performing in the company of people like Nancy Wilson, B.B.King, Herbie Man, and B-3 masters Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff and Richard Groove Holmes.

Dan is not one of those one-finger-only B-3 organists – he usually plays the instrument big-band style, with rich chording that really swings. As in any good B-3 trio, guitarist Levy aids the swing right down the middle of the groove.  But the addition of the tenor sax makes for a much fuller and more impactful sound. And Fogel’s tune choices are the best – see below. The other thing I could say about the quartet’s approach is that it’s a low-fat product – while it swings like mad there’s less grease here, which is just fine with me.  Can’t complain about the sonics either – this was a live-to-two-track type session without overdubs or fancy studio EQ and reverb. The venue – as with Chesky, Opus 3 and some of the other audiophile labels – was a wooden church sanctuary with a 50-foot ceiling.

TrackList: Just Friends, A Night in Tunisia, Blues After All, It’s You or No One, Out of This World, 15 West, Willow Weep for Me, I Thought About You, Broadway.

 – John Henry

Related Reviews
Logo Pure Pleasure
Logo Crystal Records Sidebar 300 ms
Logo Jazz Detective Deep Digs Animated 01