Jackie Gleason – Silk 'N' Brass

This album reads like a who’s who of jazz and studio musician personnel and you can hear it. The playing is A1. If you are truly into good playing and your horn men then this album will take your breath. It’s a total master class to a musician who wants to know how to play. The stacatto hits form the band don’t get tighter than this album. This is not an album we’re you are going to hear Lester young style improv, Infact there is little improv on the album apart from the selected solos in each track but it’s good melodic improv when it happens. Certainly not the mathematical type of solos we are so use to hearing today, ( the technically brilliant but void of fun and melody type) on this album you can hear these happy guys singing these solos in their head right before they come out of their instruments. Pee wee Erwin features on trumpet along with Charlie Ventura on Sax… so you know exactly who they are sharing the stand with… the cream of first call studio players. The arranger is no other but George Williams, and they are truly stunning arrangements, full of energy fun and beans ! The slow ones are as the album says SilK ’N’ Brass. If this album cost 50 pounds I’d say it’s worth it, thankfully you can get it for less than a pint of beer, as nice as that is it’s also sad that this calibre of musicianship is on a strange sense not ‘sort after’ any more. Thank Mother Nature for Jackie Gleason pushing for these albums to happen and being at the helm of his real passion in life. Honestly just buy this album…

Gleason couldn't red a lick of music but that didn't stop him and Capitol from releasing 40 LP's over the years directed at easy listening fans...Jackie would relay his thoughts to the arranger and producer and away they went...He really did know how to come up with some good tracks...This is the kind of album your Dad would plop on the turntable at dinner time as the family sat down to break bread...He and Mom already had a martini underway and it was time to relax and settle back with some good mellow sounds...Gleason worked with many arrangers over his career including the trumpet great, Bobby Hackett...This album was one of the top sellers in the series...