Barney Kessel Live At The Jazz Mill 1954, Vol. 2 LP (Gold Vinyl)

More unearthed tape from a jazz icon! Thanks to a 21-year-old with a tape machine, we can all experience the majesty of guitar legend Barney Kessel!

This second volume of Jazz Mill recordings shows Barney firmly at the top of his game. Once again, Barney and the Jazz Millers (pianist Pete Jolly, drummer Art Kile, and bassist Gene Stoffell) interpret a variety of standards from The Great American Songbook and each arrangement serves to demonstrate the groups superb chops and collective creativity. First up is Mean to Me, a vintage standard from 1929. Its bluesy posture and timeless message is still as modern as today. On an uptempo rendition of Tea for Two, Barney is out of the gate with chorus after chorus of smoking solos on a song some would consider a chestnut from 1925. Indian Summer has been a favorite of jazz musicians and fans for decades, and this bouncy arrangement serves as a Kessel showcase where he delivers like a master storyteller. The Millers high velocity rendition of Harold Arlens Lets Fall in Love generates non-stop excitement as Barney renders one blistering chorus after another and the groups version of the classic Blue Moon is also presented with flair and feel. I Cant Get Started is a torch song, the story of someone with an embarrassment of riches who would relinquish it all for love. Kessel and the Jazz Millers interplay express the atmospheric and contemplative sense of this composition. Closing out the album is the riff tune Godchild, something one would expect to hear at an after-hours jam session.

Thanks to Jack Miller, a young Phoenix audiophile, armed with his Knight-brand recorder, today we can relive and enjoy the artistry of one of jazz music's most extraordinary musicians. This is Barney in his salad days when he was topping all the major jazz polls and emerging as one of the most important guitarists of that or any subsequent era.