Joe Newman - Soft Swinging Jazz (CD)

All Music Guide

Thetitlesaysitall Soft Swingin' Jazz pairs Joe Newman with organist Shirley Scott, bassist Eddie Jones and Charlie Persip for a mellow, lovely session unique within the trumpeter's catalog. For starters, Newman assumes vocal duties on a handful of cuts, proving himself a fine croonermoreover, the spacious, nuanced arrangements afford him the room to summon some of his most intimate but impassioned solos. Not to mention that Scott's an uncommonly sympathetic collaborator, shaping and underlining the melodies to create rolling, contoured grooves with the texture of velvet. (Reissued in 2007 on the Lonehill label alongside the subsequent The Happy Cats.)

- Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide