Ike Quebec - 1963 - Bossa Nova Soul Samba

Ike Quebec

1963

Bossa Nova Soul Samba

01. Loie
02. Lloro Tu Despedida
03. Goin' Home
04. Me 'n You
05. Liebestraum
06. Shu Shu
07. Blue Samba
08. Favela
09. Linda Flor

Bass – Wendell Marshall
Drums – Willie Bobo
Guitar – Kenny Burrell
Shekere – Garvin Masseaux

Tenor Saxophone – Ike Quebec

This is quite a painful disc to listen to. Not because of the music—which is beautiful—but because of the events surrounding it. Recorded in October 1962, it was to be tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's final album. Less than four months later he died of lung cancer. This fact rather sticks in the mind like a house guest who has outstayed his or her welcome.

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.

1962, of course, was the year it seemed every jazzman was making a bossa nova album. Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz began the trend with Jazz Samba (Verve, 1962), made with guitarist Charlie Byrd and containing the chart hit "Desafinado." By the time Quebec was in the studio, even big-tone tenor maestro Coleman Hawkins was on board, with Desafinado (Impulse!, 1962). Next up were Sun Ra & The Solar Myth Arkestra with Sugar Loaf Mountain Bossa Party! (no, I made that up actually, but it might have been).

By the end of the year, the genre was already in danger of becoming a cliché; not least for its reliance on the songwriting of Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose tunes dominated many track listings. But Quebec had the wit to ring the changes with the material for Bossa Nova Soul Samba—he began his time with Blue Note, after all, as an A&R man. The tunes are the real thing, but little known; Brazilian composers are used, but not Jobim; and there are two originals by Quebec ("Blue Samba," "Me 'n' You"), who also, imaginatively, re-arranges Anton Dvorak's "Goin' Home."

Bossa nova was well suited to Quebec's physical and, one imagines, mental states at the time of this recording. It requires no strutting or grandstanding, and lends itself instead to subtlety and ellipsis. The saxophonist plays with heartrending tenderness throughout, sensitively supported by guitarist Kenny Burrell, drummer Willie Bobo and bassist Wendell Marshall.

This was veteran tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's final recording as a leader. It was cut in October 1962 and produced by Alfred Lion a little more than three months before the saxophonist's death. Bossa Nova Soul Samba was recorded and released during the bossa nova craze, as Brazilian music was first brought to the attention of pop listeners via Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's smash hit with Tom Jobim's "Desafinado," on their Jazz Samba record for Verve in February. After that, seemingly everyone was making a bossa nova record. Quebec's effort is a bit unusual in that none of the musicians (guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Wendell Marshall, drummer Willie Bobo, and percussionist Garvin Masseaux) was associated with Brazilian (as opposed to Afro-Cuban) jazz before this, and that there isn't a single tune written by Jobim on the set. Quebec emphasizes warm, long tones (reminiscent of Coleman Hawkins in a romantic fashion), and his sidemen play light and appealing but nonetheless authoritative bossa rhythms. Standout tracks here include Burrell's own "Loie," which opens the disc, "Goin' Home," based on a tune by classical composer Antonin Dvorák and arranged by Quebec -- he does the same with "Liebestraum" two tunes later -- and the stunning "Favela," by the crack composing team of Joraci Camargo and Heckel Tavares. The result is high-quality melodic Brazilian dance music with Burrell shining in particular.