About

“This program of sultry, minor key music with a Brazilian tinge seems inspired by Ike Quebec, who was suffering from advanced cancer that would claim his life three months later. But here is big-toned, impassioned tenor is intact. Quebec's take on the bossa nova craze that explored that year (1962) is more muscular than Stan Getz's and doesn't rely on the familiar Jobim and Gilberto songs of the day. He and Kenny Burrell solo on the sly, subtle rhythms of Wendell Marshall, Willie Bobo and Garvin Masseaux.

 Originally released in 1962.” - Acoustic Sounds

“Wistful, pretty and elegiac, the music is somehow a fitting final statement from a player best known for more muscular, extrovert, swing-to-bop balladeering. The wonder is that Quebec was able to create such lovely music when he must have known his end was near. But as session engineer Rudy Van Gelder says in the liner notes to this RVG remaster, "Ike always played beautifully, even at the end, when he was dying...I mean, literally dying." And it's true. Despite the circumstances surrounding it, Bossa Nova Soul Samba is an album of beauty.” - All About Jazz

Musicians:

• Ike Quebec, tenor sax
• Kenny Burrell, guitar
• Wendell Marshall, bass
• Willi Bobo, drums
• Garvin Masseaux, chekere

About Ike Quebec:

“Influenced by Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster but definitely his own person, Ike Quebec was one of the finest swing-oriented tenor saxman of the 1940s and '50s. Though he was never an innovator, Quebec had a big, breathy sound that was distinctive and easily recognizable, and he was quite consistent when it came to came to down-home blues, sexy ballads, and up-tempo aggression. Originally a pianist, Quebec switched to tenor in the early '40s and showed that he had made the right decision on excellent 78s for Blue Note and Savoy (including his hit "Blue Harlem"). As a sideman, he worked with Benny Carter, Kenny Clarke, Roy Eldridge, and Cab Calloway. In the late '40s, the saxman did a bit of freelancing behind the scenes as a Blue Note A&R man and brought Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell to the label. Drug problems kept Quebec from recording for most of the 1950s, but he made a triumphant comeback in the early '60s and was once again recording for Blue Note and doing freelance A&R for the company. Quebec was playing as authoritatively as ever well into 1962, giving no indication that he was suffering from lung cancer, which claimed his life at the age of 44 in 1963. ~ Alex Henderson” – Blue Note Records

Item description: