Tag: Barney Wilen

Title: Barney Wilen Quintet – Passione (1995) [Japan 2015]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

French saxophonist Barney Wilen is one of the most renowned European jazz musicians. Wilen performed with Miles Davis in 1957 on the Ascenseur pour l’echafaud soundtrack. He has also worked with Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk on other film soundtracks. During the last ten or so years of his life, Wilen has a career resurgence thanks in part to his releases on Venus Records. Passione, recorded in June 1995, was Wilen’s last recording as he passed away the following year at age 59. Not showing any indication of his illness, Passione displays Wilen in top form, sounding at ease, inspired, and powerful. One of Italy’s most well-known jazz musicians, trumpeter Enrico Rava, joins Wilen to create a very appealing front line.

Wilen is supported by a highly competent rhythm section. The quintet cheerfully swings on “Jitterbug Waltz” and Gerry Mulligan’s “Line for Lyons,” and displays strong emotion on the gorgeous “Estate” and the title track. The eclectic program also includes Latin and Italian songs. This exceptional album effectively captured Wilen’s final creative spark.

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Title: Barney Wilen Quartet – Le Ca: New York Romance (1994) [Japan 2000]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Barney Wilen had a style that wasn’t like anyone else. On this album he exhibits a cool smokey tone and plays these tunes straight ahead. For example, on Mack the Knife, there is no attitude of fake hipness to get in the way of the melody. It doesn’t sound like cliched versions of a 50’s hipster or someone trying too hard to make something new out of it.

Alternating between soprano, tenor and baritone saxes in this collection of straight-ahead jazz for the Japanese market, Barney Wilen refuses to be pinned down to a single tone quality or approach, even on the same instrument. Among other things, he mimics the lagging phrasing of Lady Day on “You’ve Changed” on soprano, “Blues Walk” bumps along agreeably on baritone while “Old Devil Moon” is sustained and humorous, and “Mack the Knife” is converted into a glacial smoky ballad with almost casual nonchalance. Throughout, Kenny Barron gets acres of well-turned solo space – it’s practically his gig, too – and Ira Coleman (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums) provide crisp underpinning. The further one goes in this collection, the more interesting and less predictable it sounds.

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Title: Barney Wilen – Inside Nitty = Gritty (1993) [Japan 2016]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Barney Wilen says he was convinced to become a musician by his mother’s friend, the poet Blaise Cendrars. As a teenager he started a youth jazz club in Nice, where he played often. He moved to Paris in the mid-’50s and worked with such American musicians as Bud Powell, Benny Golson, Miles Davis, and J.J. Johnson at the Club St. Germain. His emerging reputation received a boost in 1957 when he played with Davis on the soundtrack to the Louis Malle film “Lift to the Scaffold.” Two years later, he performed with Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk on the soundtrack to Roger Vadim’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (1960). Wilen began working in a rock-influenced style during the ’60s, recording an album titled Dear Professor Leary in 1968. This release have been recorded in France for Japanese Venus Records.

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