George Coleman - I Could Write a Book

Inspired by a guest spot in a Carnegie Hall Jazz Band tribute to Rodgers and Hart, Coleman organized an entire album around the theme -- with a touch of Hammerstein too. It's a mostly mainstream hard bop session, with Coleman's slightly dry, plain-spoken tone on all three of his instruments -- soprano, alto and tenor -- lending an appropriately lyrical bend to the collection of well-known Rodgers standards; well, its mostly hard bop, "My Favorite Things" is cast perhaps inevitably in the modal Coltrane mold, with Coleman on soprano for good measure, and once in a great while, Coleman lets fly outside the changes. A fine, flexible rhythm section of veterans -- two fellow Memphis colleagues (pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Jamil Nasser) and one Angeleno drummer (Billy Higgins) -- sends Coleman on his way in style. As if in tribute to his rhythm section, Coleman sits out "People Will Say We're in Love" entirely and dukes it out with Higgins on a brief "Thou Swell." This is almost an echo of fellow saxman Joe Henderson's successful tribute formula of the early 1990s, although Henderson's CDs were somewhat more emotionally involving than this. - by Richard S. Ginell, AMG

Artist: George Coleman
Album: I Could Write a Book (The Music of Richard Rodgers)
Year: 1998
Quality: eac-flac, cue, log, artw.
Label: Telarc Jazz
Total time: 59:29

Tracks:
1.  Falling In Love With Love (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 5:14
2.  My Funny Valentine (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 6:20
3.  Lover (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 6:50
4.  Bewitched (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 5:20
5.  I Didn't Know What Time It Was (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 4:51
6.  My Favorite Things (Oscar Hammerstein II/Richard Rodgers) 6:06
7.  Have You Met Miss Jones (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 7:57
8.  People Will Say We're In Love (Oscar Hammerstein II/Richard Rodgers) 3:38
9.  I Could Write A Book (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 7:11
10.  Medley: There's A Small Hotel/Where Or When/The Sweetest Sounds (Richard Rodgers)  3:47
11.  Thou Swell (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 2:15

Personnel:
George Coleman (Saxophones)
Harold Mabern (Piano)
Jamil Nasser (Double Bass)
Billy Higgins (Drums)