Exhale (Arthur Blythe album)

Exhale
Studio album by
Arthur Blythe
ReleasedJune 17, 2003
RecordedOctober 14, 2002
StudioTedesco Studio, Paramus, NJ
GenreJazz
Length65:35
LabelSavant
SCD 2050
ProducerCecil Brooks III
Arthur Blythe chronology
Focus
(2002) 		Exhale
(2003)

Exhale, is the final album by saxophonist Arthur Blythe which was recorded in 2002 and released on the Savant label the following year.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Guardian[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[4]

In his review on AllMusic, arwulf arwulf called it an "enjoyable album".[2] In JazzTimes, John Litweiler wrote: "the leader himself casts a peculiarly gloomy, out-of-character spell. Blythe’s strengths-big sound, aggressive attack and bright melodic imagination-are best at up tempos and on pieces with chord changes, wherein the active harmonic structure lends shape to his frequently discontinuous lines. Exhale has too many slow tempos and one-chord pieces; moreover, his sound now is limpid and his attack laid-back ... Exhale must have simply been a bad day".[5] In The Guardian, John Fordham observed "Not perfect playing, but very compelling music from a unique improviser, and the strange group sound grows on you".[3]

Track listing

All compositions by Arthur Blythe except where noted

  1. "Cousin Mary" (John Coltrane) – 5:20
  2. "Come Sunday" (Duke Ellington) – 6:16
  3. "Exhaust Suite: Nonette" (Bob Stewart) – 3:16
  4. "Exhaust Suite: Surrender" – 4:10
  5. "Exhaust Suite: LC" – 1:15
  6. "Exhaust Suite: Phase Two" – 2:31
  7. "Night Train" (Jimmy Forrest, Oscar Washington) – 6:14
  8. "7/4 Thang" – 3:54
  9. "Equinox" (Coltrane) – 9:10
  10. "Just Friends" (John Klenner, Sam M. Lewis) – 4:28
  11. "CJ" (Stewart) – 5:26
  12. "All Blues" (Miles Davis) – 8:38
  13. "Straighten Up and Fly Right" (Nat King Cole, Irving Mills) – 4:04
  14. "Exhale" – 0:53

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Jazz Depot: album entry accessed March 9, 2018
  2. ^ a b arwulf, arwulf. Arthur Blythe – Exhale: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  3. ^ a b Fordham, J. The Guardian Review, August 22, 2003
  4. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. ^ Litweiler, J. JazzTimes Review, accessed March 9, 2018