Love Songs

Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 2001
Released on LP: No
Released on CD: Yes

Tracks

1. My Romance
2. What Is This Thing Called Love
3. These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)
4. In Your Own Sweet Way
5. Somewhere
6. La Paloma Azul
7. Audrey
8. You Go To My Head
9. Like Someone In Love
10. Besame Mucho

Notes

Includes "You Go My Head" previously unreleased.

Recorded between 1956 & 1967.

Personnel: Dave Brubeck (piano); Bill Smith (clarinet); Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Bob Bates, Eugene Wright (bass); Joe Dodge, Joe Morello (drums).

Compilation producers: Russell Gloyd, Didier C. Deutsch, Seth Rothstein.

Reviews

All Music Guide - Review – copyright

This is the tamer, politer side of Dave Brubeck, for sure, collecting ten songs, mostly ballads and never uptempo (though once in a while it gets brisk), from 1954 to 1967. For the most part these are soothing, though not overly slick, interpretations of standards by the likes of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart, as well as "These Foolish Things" and "Besame Mucho." It includes one unreleased track, a 1963 version of "You Go to My Head," on which clarinetist Bill Smith takes alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's place. These tunes have been grouped to market to the most mainstream segment of the record-buying population. Although this album won't yield a balanced overview of Brubeck's talents, however, that doesn't mean the music is bad. This is Sunday-morning jazz, or perhaps after-dinner jazz when everyone's too stuffed to dance, with reasonable integrity.

Richie Unterberger

Copyright Rovi Corporation


Editorial Reviews Amazon.com - copyright

Were it not for the warm embraces from Paul Desmond's alto saxophone, this collection of love songs would be a case study in emotional dysfunction. While Dave Brubeck is an influential pianist and one of the leading lights of the dry, West Coast "cool" school of jazz, his poker-faced approach to tonal inflections and his emphasis on tricky, technical time signatures is not the sort of thing that makes people feel cuddly. The exception occurs on the lead track, a stirring rendition of Rodgers and Hart's "My Romance" that has Brubeck setting an intimate mood with a contemplative opening solo. After that, Desmond's lyrical élan bears most of the romantic burden. He is generally up to the task, capturing just the right mix of whimsicality and wistfulness on "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)" and teaming with Brubeck for a wonderfully understated treatment of West Side Story's "Somewhere." There are some misfires: the rhythmic backing on "La Paloma Azul" sounds hopelessly anachronistic beside today's Latin and Afro-Cuban offerings, and the record's lone previously unreleased song, "You Go to My Head," lacks the cohesion customary of a Brubeck ensemble. But overall, this is a pleasant collection that offers a less cerebral side of Brubeck as he assays pieces from the Great American Songbook.

Britt Robson