专辑简介

Leslie Drayton专辑介绍：by Alex HendersonLeslie Drayton is a perfect example of a musician who has often worked in commercial settings but is equally proficient with hard bop and post-bop. Released in 1999, By Request spans from 1980-84 and draws on three of his albums from that period: Our Music Is Your Music, Turning a Corner and Love Is a Four-Letter Word. The collection isn't the last word on Drayton, but it does paint a likable, well-rounded picture of the trumpeter, who is heard as a straight-ahead big-band hard bopper some of the time but gets into more of an R&B-meets-jazz groove on tunes like "Le Boulevard St. Germain," "Turning a Corner" and "Pent-Up Emotions." Hard bop and post-bop cuts like "Fos-Alarm" and the Latin-influenced "The Southern Extremity" underscore Drayton's appreciation of Oliver Nelson, who had a major influence on his arranging. Barbara Morrison, an excellent L.A.-based singer who handles jazz, blues and R&B equally well, is featured on Drayton's enjoyable R&B number "When Will You Be Mine?" and a reading of T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday." It's important to stress that even the most commercial songs on this CD have integrity -- in the early 1980s, Drayton demonstrated that a jazzman doesn't have to be a purist to have creativity.