{"id":198,"date":"2021-03-31T00:32:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T00:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/?page_id=198"},"modified":"2021-10-05T15:03:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T15:03:58","slug":"1989-2007","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/1989-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"1989-2007"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summing up\u2014and playing around.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andr\u00e9 Previn with Joe Pass & Ray Brown: After Hours<\/strong><\/em> (Telarc, 1989) (recorded March 1989)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9 Previn with Mundell Lowe & Ray Brown: Uptown<\/strong><\/em> (Telarc Jazz, 1990) (recorded March 1990)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9 Previn, Mundell Lowe, and Ray Brown: Old Friends<\/strong><\/em> (Telarc Jazz, 1992) (recorded August 1991)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of jokes, some reminiscing, some future planning, and a great deal of music making. I can\u2019t remember an easier record to make, and I went home in the early hours of the morning with my nerves quiescent, my blood pressure down, and in a generally euphoric fog.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s Previn\u2019s description of the After Hours<\/em> session in his memoir, as efficient a precis as there is of his musical paragon. To believe Previn, the release of the album was not even a given. Previn, guitarist Joe Pass, and Ray Brown, back on bass, recorded single takes of each number, then all three passed judgement on the playback; any objections, and the track would have been amicably shelved. Previn has told enough similar stories about other sessions, and failed to remember easier records to make on enough other occasions, that a two-finger pinch of salt is probably warranted. But the sentiment is absolutely sincere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And After Hours<\/em> is as solid a comeback as Previn could have hoped. The playlist is congenial: ten standards (including three Ellington songs\u2014Previn will play a lot of Ellington from here on in) and the obligatory improvised blues, \u201cOne for Bunz.\u201d Brown and Pass\u2014Previn\u2019s \u201cfail-safe insurance,\u201d as he called them\u2014make for an adroit combo, Previn and Brown picking up where they left off in the 60s, and Pass an inspired addition, one of the few guitarists with the dexterity to grab threads of Previn\u2019s solos and run with them in the same way Previn keeps doing to him. Truth be told, one some tracks, Previn shadows Pass\u2019s solos far too closely, leaning on such on-the-fly imitative counterpoint instead of his own complementary accompanying ideas. But elsewhere, Previn\u2019s playing is alive and adventitious, his usual tricks largely replaced by responsive conversation. (It\u2019s as if he listened to the Perlman albums and thought, that\u2019s too many blues licks even for <\/em>me.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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