Jazzbühne Berlin '83

AMG Review of Jazzbühne Berlin '83

Ken Dryden
All Music Guide

Horace Parlan has rarely been featured in a solo piano concert setting, but this 1983 live date recorded for broadcast in East Berlin is an exceptional outing. He opens with a percolating take of "Solar" and also excels with a driving arrangement of the trumpeter's modal masterpiece "Nardis" (which is strangely credited to pianist Bill Evans, who recorded and performed it many times over a 20-year period). Parlan's lush, imaginative interpretation of Charles Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" and brooding, bluesy setting of the late bassist's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" are also noteworthy, though the latter is marred by some technical distortion in a few places. The pianist also delivers the goods with a swinging rendition of "There Is No Greater Love" and a dreamy "Over the Rainbow." One track from a 1979 concert recording of pianist Mal Waldron Sextet was evidently added to lengthen the original album to a more acceptable time for a CD; although it is a rewarding performance, it seems a bit of a misfit as an addendum to Parlan's material.