For three days in 1975 producer Norman Granz largely took over the Montreux Jazz Festival and recorded nearly everything; he had a similar arrangement with the 1977 edition. This double-LP (whose contents have mostly not been reissued yet on CD) has music from nine different groups ranging from unaccompanied solos by guitarist
Joe Pass and pianist
Oscar Peterson to an octet. Just listing the all-star performers should be enough to water the mouths of most straightahead jazz fans. In addition to Pass and
Peterson there are trumpeters
Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry and
Dizzy Gillespie, tenors
Johnny Griffin,
Zoot Sims and Eddie "Lockjaw"
Davis, altoist
Benny Carter,
Toots Thielemans on harmonica, vibraphonist
Milt Jackson, pianists
Oscar Peterson,
Count Basie and
Tommy Flanagan, bassists Niels Pedersen and
Keter Betts and drummers
Louie Bellson,
Mickey Roker and
Bobby Durham plus
Ella Fitzgerald sings "The Man I Love." The music is essentially standards and blues but the classic musicians come up with enough surprises in their solos to hold one's interest throughout. ~ Scott Yanow