TETE MONTOLIU & MUNDELL LOWE: Sweet´n lovely (Vols. 1 & 2)

TETE MONTOLIU
TETE tinha um temperamento bastante difícil, fechado, egocêntrico. "Se achava" o melhor pianista de Jazz da Europa - mas não era, embora fosse um grande pianista. Tal como os demais pianistas cegos que conhecemos (George Shearing, Art Tatum, Manfredo Fest, Stevie Wonder, Lennie Tristano e outros tantos), tinha uma sensibilidade incrível e um domínio perfeito do instrumento.
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MUNDELL LOWE
ML é um segredo muito bem guardado entre os "jazzófilos", pois nunca alcançou grande sucesso e reconhecimento fora desta fechada confraria. Mas, numa época em que os grandes guitarristas (Sal Salvador, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney e Tal Farlow, para citar
alguns), primavam pela elegância do fraseado, economia de notas e escolha dos acordes exatos em harmonias riquíssimas, MUNDELL LOWE se destacava, exatamente por estes atributos, que parecem ter sido sepultados definitivamente pelos guitarristas
oriundos da Berklee School e assemelhadas. MUNDELL LOWE era considerado como o "músico dos músicos", o "guitarrista dos guitarristas", o que dá bem a exata medida do seu enorme talento. Mas o melhor de tudo é que, ainda hoje, aos 88 anos de idade, o velho e bom ML continua na estrada...
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MUNDELL LOWE
BORN IN LAUREL, Mississippi, in 1922, Mundell left home at the age of thirteen. After working in Nashville, he found his way to Bourbon Street in New Orleans and the beginning of his jazz career. While serving in World War Il, he met the influential John Hammond, who introduced him to Ray McKinley. Mundell worked with McKinley’s band for a year and a half, developing his distinctive instrumental
style, and then moved on to work in New York at Café Society and stints at the Village Vanguard and The Embers, among others. Mundell worked with Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Helen Humes and Charles Mingus, to name but a few. These gigs overlapped with an early morning TV show at NBC with Cy Coleman, “A Date in Manhattan,” and later “The Kate Smith Hour” with Stan Getz, Doc Severinsen, and Kai Winding. FROM THE EARLY FIFTIES to the mid-Sixties, he was an active performer, working with George Duvivier on bass and Ed Shaughnessy on drums in Dave Garroway’s “Today Show” studio band. He also played with the extraordinary pianist Hank Jones when they both worked in the NBC and CBS orchestras of the early Fifties. After seventeen years at NBC as a guitarist and arranger, Lowe was transferred to the News and Special Events Department to work as a composer. MUNDELL MOVED TO LOS ANGELES, California, Christmas 1965—actually, he left to visit some friends, and never went back to New York! He met Jackie Cooper, then-head of Screen Gems, and began the West Coast phase of his career composing music for some of their television and film properties. Lowe augmented his TV and film work with making his own LPs as well as two successful projects with noted singers Sarah Vaughan (‘After Hours”) and Carmen McRae (‘Bittersweet”).EVEN THOUGH HE HAD made special appearances with Peggy Lee and the White House, toured Japan with Benny Carter several times, and was a regular performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Mundell found he was spending more time writing than playing, which he found frustrating. He made up his mind to turn that around and, during the 1980s, he stepped out of the studio world of film and television and returned to performing, the first love of his long and rich musical career. MUNDELL'S CURRENT SCHEDULE is no less active. In the last few years he has
traveled the globe as a concert performer, worked the States with his own quintet, and has made several trips to New York to work with Ron Carter, Al Foster, Bill Mays, and Ray Drummond. He tours with the André Previn Trio (composed of Previn, the late Ray Brown, and Lowe), as well as the Great Guitars with the late Charlie Byrd, Herb Ellis, and Tal Farlow. Mundell also has been busy in recording studios lately, having recorded two albums for Telarc with the André Previn Trio, one for Phillips with Kiri Te Kanawa, and two albums for Fresh Sounds with Teté Montoliu.
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MINHA OPINIÃO - o encontro desses dois gigantes do jazz dispensa encômios: que dizer de dois "monstros sagrados", tocando um irrepreensível repertório de pérolas? Mas um detalhe despertou minha atenção: nunca ouvi Tete Montoliu caprichar tanto nas harmonias; algumas (como a da "masterpiece" EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME) têm um nível de sofisticação poucas vezes atingido por TM. Teria sido o "dedo" de Mundell Lowe? Acho que sim... POr isso, considero o álbum como OURO EM PÓ...
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TETE MONTOLIU & MUNDEL LOWE - Sweet´n Lovely (Vol. 1)
Recorded in Barcelona, on September 30, 1989

PERSONNEL:
Mundell Lowe - Guitar
Tete Montoliu - Piano

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
01 You're My Everything (Dixon-Young-Warren)
02 There's a Small Hotel (Rodgers-Hart)
03 When Lights Are Low (Benny Carter)
04 You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To (C.Porter)
05 Ellington Medley: Prelude to a Kiss/In a Sentimental Mood/It Don't Mean A Thing (Duke Ellington)
06 Sweet and Lovely (Arnheim-Tobias-Lemare)
07 Moonlight in Vermont (Suessdorf-Blackburn)
08 Lover (Rodgers-Hart)
09 For All We Know (Coots-Lewis)
10 Honeysuckle Rose (Waller-Razaf)
11 Scrapple from the Apple (C.Parker)

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TETE MONTOLIU & MUNDEL LOWE - Sweet´n Lovely (Vol. 2)
Recorded in Barcelona, on September 30, 1989

Mundell Lowe Guitar
Tete Montoliu Piano

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
01. Tangerine (Shertzinger-Mercer)
02. Everything Happens To Me (Dennis-Adair)
03. Gone With The Wind (Wrubel-Magidson)
04. A Child Is Born (Jones)
05. The Way You Look Tonight (Kern-Fields)
06. You Go To My Head (Coots-Gillespie)
07. Stardust (Carmichael Parish)
08. Night In Tunisia (Gillespie-Paparelli)
09. Lullaby In Rhythm (Sampson-Goodman-Profit-Hirsh)