Listening to Prestige 388: Oliver Nelson - Lem Winchester

You may start listening to this album thinking of the poignancy of two young lives. Lem Winchester would be dead a few months after this session. Oliver Nelson was at the beginning of a career that would last into the next decade and include many recordings, but he would die of a heart attack at age 45.

But however you started listening to it, you  would very quickly be in the thrall of the music. Nelson and Winchester are both brilliant soloists, and so is the underrated Richard Wyands. But the real show-stopper here is Nelson as composer.

Nelson began to be recognized as a composer for his Impulse! album, Blues and the Poetic Truth, and he went on to have considerable commercial success composing and arranging music for movies and TV, and he composed several symphonic works. But his greatness as a composer didn't start with Blues and the Poetic Truth. Listen to any of his originals on this album: "Nocturne," "Early Morning," or particularly "Bob's Blues."

It surprised me to discover, as highly regarded as Nelson is in jazz circles, how few recordings of the tunes from Blues and the Poetic Truth have been made by others. It absolutely shocked me to discover that none of his other compositions have even been recorded. I defy any jazz musician reading this blog to listen to "Bob's Blues" and say that he or she wouldn't like to make their own interpretation of it.

The album is called Nocturne. Esmond Edwards produced. It was released on Moodsville after Winchester's death, as we see in this four-star review from the April 24, 1961 issue of Billboard:

One of the newer jazz names is spotlighted in this moody compilation of torch ballads. Oliver Nelson plays both tenor and alto on the date with a genuine regard for the ballad form. He is caught, along with the late vibes player Lem Winchester, on seven feelingful tracks playing some beautiful melodic material.

The Billboard reviewer goes on to single out "In a Sentimental Mood" (Duke Ellington),"Time After Time" (Jule Styne) and "Man with a Horn" (Jenney, Lake, deLange) for mention, but none of Nelson's originals, so recognition of his composing skills was a little slow in coming. Granted, these are all first-rate tunes, but so are Nelson's.

Listening to Prestige Vol. 2, 1955-56, and Vol. 3, 1957-58 now include, in the Kindle editions, links to all the "Listen to One" selections. Available from Amazon.