The Frank Wess Quartet - Moodsville, Volume 8 (Moodsville Acoustic Sounds Series Vinyl)

180-Gram Black Vinyl LP in Tip-On Jacket, Moodsville Acoustic Sounds Series

Moodsville, Volume 8 is one of the three records that launched the Moodsville Acoustic Sounds Series, the Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds reissue line drawn from Prestige's Moodsville catalog, alongside Coleman Hawkins's The Hawk Relaxes and the Red Garland Trio's Moodsville, Volume 1. Matthew Lutthans of The Mastering Lab mastered it all-analog from the original tapes, and Quality Record Pressings pressed it on 180-gram black vinyl. The tip-on jacket reproduces the 1960 front and back, Ron Eyre's sleeve notes included, and the back carries catalog number CR00959. The distributor lists the jacket as a Stoughton tip-on and the package as including an OBI.

The quartet recorded on May 9, 1960 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with Esmond Edwards producing, and the album was issued on Moodsville that year as MVLP 8. Wess plays tenor saxophone and flute, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Eddie Jones on bass and Bobby Donaldson on drums. Eyre's notes add that Jones joined Count Basie's band the same year Wess did, and that Donaldson had worked with Cat Anderson, Edmond Hall, Sy Oliver, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk and Buck Clayton.

The program is six standards and one original. Side A opens with Alec Wilder's "It's So Peaceful In The Country," flute with piano; Wess's own "Rainy Afternoon" follows on tenor, a tune the notes say was given its name at the session; and "Star Eyes," by Don Raye and Gene De Paul from the 1943 film I Dood It, returns to flute. Side B is four ballads: Victor Young's "Stella By Starlight" and Allie Wrubel's "Gone With The Wind" on tenor, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's "But Beautiful" and Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "I See Your Face Before Me" on flute.

Wess was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1922. The jacket dates his arrival in Count Basie's orchestra to 1953, and he stayed until 1964; Eyre's notes call him one of the first jazz musicians to achieve success as a flute soloist, and name his earlier Prestige albums After Hours, with Thad Jones, and Wheelin' And Dealin', with Paul Quinichette and John Coltrane. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2007 and died in 2013.

Tracklist

Side A

1. It's So Peaceful In The Country
2. Rainy Afternoon
3. Star Eyes

Side B

4. Stella By Starlight
5. But Beautiful
6. Gone With The Wind
7. I See Your Face Before Me