Louis Stewart – ‘I Thought About You’ (rec. 1977)

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   Julian Maynard-Smith
29 May 2025 

Since relaunching in 2023, Livia Records has released six albums from Irish guitar legend Louis Stewart, all lovingly digitised and remastered from source tapes rescued from an archive that had sat in a lock-up for twenty years. The latest dusted-down gem is I Thought About You, featuring a dream team of John Taylor (piano), Sam Jones (double bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). 
The album came about because Jones and Higgins happened to be playing in Cedar Walton’s quartet at Ronnie Scott’s at the same time that Louis and Taylor were in the house band. Louis wisely suggested they record together. Less wisely, dissatisfied with some of his solos he took a ¼ inch copy of the 2-inch tapes to record overdubs, and it was these overdubbed versions that appeared on the original 1980 release. This reissue restores the 2-inch masters to their original glory, with digitisation by FX Labs in London, and remixing and remastering by Seán Mac Erlaine (who did a brilliant job on all the previous Louis reissues). The result is dazzling, and left me wondering how on earth Louis could have been unhappy with any aspect of his original performances. And the sound throughout is great: clean, warm and bright, with every detail sharp: from the finest cymbal sizzle to the springy woody texture of the double bass.
All three formats of the reissue (LP, CD, download) include the full original set, comprising two well-known jazz standards (the eponymous “I Thought About You” and “Straight No Chaser”) bookending four lesser known tunes: “Litha” (Chick Corea), “Smiling Billy” (Jimmy Heath), “Unit 7” (Sam Jones) and “November Girl” (Francy Boland and Jimmy Woode). The CD and download include two bonus tracks, “All Blues” and an alternative take of “November Girl”, and the CD (the format covered in this review) comes in a gatefold sleeve with full-colour 16-page booklet.
It’s just class throughout: from gentle swing on “I Thought About You” and “Smiling Billy” to breakneck solos on Corea’s knotty tune “Litha” and the boppish “Unit Seven”, and late-night romanticism on the balled “November Girl”. Cracking solos all round as well, with guitar and piano solos on every track, bass solos on four tracks, and two noticeably different drum solos, one on “Litha” (where snare drum and cymbals predominate) and another on “Smiling Billy” (which focuses more on tom-toms with bass-drum punctuation) – not to mention some fantastic guitar/drum trading on “Straight No Chaser” and “All Blues”, the latter in particular a polyrhythmic masterclass.
Once again, congratulations to Livia Records for bringing an essential recording to light, and restoring it to such a high standard.
Release date is today, 29 May 2025.
from https://ukjazznews.com

Edited by snobb - Yesterday at 12:28am

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	Julian Maynard-Smith 29 May 2025 Since relaunching in 2023, Livia Records has released six albums from Irish guitar legend Louis Stewart, all lovingly digitised and remastered from source tapes rescued from an archive that had sat in a lock-up for twenty years. The latest dusted-down gem is I Thought About You, featuring a dream team of John Taylor (piano), Sam Jones (double bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). The album came about because Jones and Higgins happened to be playing in Cedar Walton’s quartet at Ronnie Scott’s at the same time that Louis and Taylor were in the house band. Louis wisely suggested they record together. Less wisely, dissatisfied with some of his solos he took a ¼ inch copy of the 2-inch tapes to record overdubs, and it was these overdubbed versions that appeared on the original 1980 release. This reissue restores the 2-inch masters to their original glory, with digitisation by FX Labs in London, and remixing and remastering by Seán Mac Erlaine (who did a brilliant job on all the previous Louis reissues). The result is dazzling, and left me wondering how on earth Louis could have been unhappy with any aspect of his original performances. And the sound throughout is great: clean, warm and bright, with every detail sharp: from the finest cymbal sizzle to the springy woody texture of the double bass. All three formats of the reissue (LP, CD, download) include the full original set, comprising two well-known jazz standards (the eponymous “I Thought About You” and “Straight No Chaser”) bookending four lesser known tunes: “Litha” (Chick Corea), “Smiling Billy” (Jimmy Heath), “Unit 7” (Sam Jones) and “November Girl” (Francy Boland and Jimmy Woode). The CD and download include two bonus tracks, “All Blues” and an alternative take of “November Girl”, and the CD (the format covered in this review) comes in a gatefold sleeve with full-colour 16-page booklet. It’s just class throughout: from gentle swing on “I Thought About You” and “Smiling Billy” to breakneck solos on Corea’s knotty tune “Litha” and the boppish “Unit Seven”, and late-night romanticism on the balled “November Girl”. Cracking solos all round as well, with guitar and piano solos on every track, bass solos on four tracks, and two noticeably different drum solos, one on “Litha” (where snare drum and cymbals predominate) and another on “Smiling Billy” (which focuses more on tom-toms with bass-drum punctuation) – not to mention some fantastic guitar/drum trading on “Straight No Chaser” and “All Blues”, the latter in particular a polyrhythmic masterclass. Once again, congratulations to Livia Records for bringing an essential recording to light, and restoring it to such a high standard. Release date is today, 29 May 2025. from https://ukjazznews.com Edited by snobb - Yesterday at 12:28am