This Is Bordeaux
With The Chris Ibenez Trio
Decca DL 74347
Well executed live jazz flavored lounge set from an obscure artist. Ibanez wrote one track on the LP, the sample tune above titled This Is Bordeaux.
From the back cover: In France – whence comes popular jazz pianist Chris Ibenez – they say he does more than play the piano. "True Frenchman that he is," they insist, "he caresses the keys with gentle passion" ...all of which means, quite simply, that this skillful, sensitive and imaginative young instrumentalist plays a whole lot of piano
Chris, who to this day refuses to read music, lost his first piano teacher for that very reason. He trained himself by first imitating, ultimately surpassing, the variety of jazz sounds available to him on radio and recordings. By the time he reached his teens, he was performing professionally at jazz clubs in and around his native Bordeaux.
Making the San Francisco jazz scene via French radio, night clubs, recordings, and motion pictures, Chris later appeared at Las Vegas' Desert Inn and Flamingo, then Lake Tahoe's Nevada Lodge and Wagon Wheel. He returned to San Francisco for the opening of Dave Young's Executive Suite – a "limited" engagement that has to date lasted three years, and if the 'Suite' audiences have their way, will last forever.
Tangerine
Misty
Exactly Like You
Poinciana
The Trolley Song
Perdido
On The Street Where You Live
How High The Moon
But Not For ME
This Is Bordeaux
I recently picked up a nice copy of this LP at Goodwill. Wonderful jazz trio tunes from back when jazz had actual melodies and simple arrangements that enhanced the tune, rather than the so-called jazz of today, where the melody is buried under so much "noise" you can't find it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your "obscure" descriptor of the artist - couldn't find much on Ibenez (or Ibanez). It's with an 'e' on this album, but with an 'a' on https://www.discogs.com/release/6029090-Chris-Ibanez-And-Vernon-Alley-An-Evening-At-The-Villa-Roma and in 2 Google Books.
One of the latter, Derrick Bang's Vince Guaraldi at the Piano has a one-line mention of Ibanez on page 215, saying that Guaraldi opened a 2-week gig in August 1967 at C'Est Bon, a new San Francisco club owned by Ibanez.
That's it. Couldn't even find his DOB (or death?). Regardless, I really enjoy this album, especially his reading of How High the Moon and Tangerine. About 2 minutes into the latter, he has a great piano lick quoted from the Route 66 TV show theme, which was hot at the time. Wonderful stuff!