The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions of Ike Quebec collects a phenomenal body of work produced between 1959-62 by a key player in the Blue Note Story. The saxophonist had recorded a series of 78s for Alfred Lion in the 1940s and also served as a talent scout who encouraged Lion to record important figures of the emerging bebop scene including Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. After a difficult period through the 1950s during which Quebec fell off the scene, Lion reconnected with his friend and began to reintroduce Quebec’s music to jazz fans in 1959 with a series of 45 jukebox singles that were well received and revealed a formidable stylist very much at the top of his game. His full-throated yet utterly relaxed sound was ideally suited to a wide range of material from ballads to blues. The success of Quebec’s comeback inspired Lion to keep going, capturing four sessions of material with a revolving cast of musicians that yielded classic tracks including “A Light Reprieve,” “Blue Monday,” and “What A Difference A Day Makes.” Quebec would also go on to record several album sessions including the timeless soul jazz classics Heavy Soul, Blue & Sentimental, and Bossa Nova Soul Samba, capping a prolific end to a career that would be tragically cut short with his death from lung cancer at age 44 in 1963.
Tracklist
LP1
Side A
A Light Reprieve
Buzzard Lope
Blue Monday
Zonky
Side B
Later For The Rock
Sweet And Lovely
Dear John
Blue Friday
LP2
Side A
Everything Happens To Me [Short Version]
Mardi Gras
What A Difference A Day Makes
For All We Know
Ill Wind
Side B
If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
I've Got The World On A String
Me 'N Mabe
Everything Happens To Me [Long Version]
LP3
Side A
How Long Has This Been Going On
With A Song In My Heart
Imagination
What Is There To Say?
Side B
There Is No Greater Love
All Of Me
Intermezzo
But Not For Me
All The Way
Produced for release by Joe Harley, the 3-LP vinyl set is all-analog and cut directly from Rudy Van Gelder’s original master tapes by Kevin Gray. Pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, the LPs come packaged in a deluxe tip-on trifold jacket which includes a booklet with never-before-seen photos by Francis Wolff and an insightful, in-depth essay by scholar Loren Schoenberg.
