IKE QUEBEC — With A Song In My Heart (review)

IKE QUEBEC — With A Song In My Heart album cover Album · 1980 · Swing Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Steve Wyzard
BALLADS'N'BLUES

In this album's effusive sleeve notes by Bob Porter, Ike Quebec is called "one of the very best tenor players who ever lived." That might be stretching it just a bit, but it's nice to have With A Song In My Heart to hear what the fuss was all about. Both Jimmy Smith and Grant Green thought highly enough of Ike to have him sit in on two different albums each.

Part of Blue Note's infamous "LT" series, this album was recorded in two sessions less than a year before Ike's untimely death from cancer (age: 44) in 1963. Often compared to Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, Ike's late night boudoir tone is on full display throughout these recordings. If the listener should notice a lack of cohesiveness, it's because these songs were not meant to be compiled to make an album, but to be released as 45s for the jukeboxes of bars and restaurants. Lightly backed by organ, guitar, bass, and drums, Ike wails his way through six standard ballads. The tempos pick up for "With a Heart in My Song", "All of Me", and "But Not For Me" before returning to the blues phrases he plays so well.

Due to "personal problems", Ike Quebec's recording career can be considered "spotty" at best. In the interest of full disclosure, all nine of the songs on With A Song In My Heart have been compiled with others into a 2-CD set with all of his "jukebox" work. Consider this album to be an effective sampler, despite the darkly lit theatre curtain that serves as its cover.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Luminescence Post Bop
TOMMY SMITH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pulsar Avant-Garde Jazz
WILLIAM PARKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 2 Avant-Garde Jazz
ARTHUR BLYTHE
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Attic & Eve Risser : La Grande Crue Avant-Garde Jazz
THE ATTIC (RODRIGO AMADO / GONÇALO ALMEIDA / ONNO GOVAERT)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Quartet Music Vol. II : Kardamon Fall Avant-Garde Jazz
MICHAËL ATTIAS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Malia - Everybody's Talkin' (Official Video)
MALIA
snobb· 5 days ago
La Dame à la licorne (Live à La Gare)
RAPHAËL IMBERT
js· 7 days ago
Evening Stroll Through Nyhavn (Live)
ALVIN QUEEN
snobb· 10 days ago
Peace - Brad Mehldau; Mark Turner; Peter Bernstein; Larry Grenadier; and Leon Parker
M.T.B. (MEHLDAU/TURNER/BERNSTEIN)
js· 10 days ago
Distractions 4
THE RH FACTOR
js· 10 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed