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Trumpeter Charlie Shavers made his last studio recordings at the Studio Monestier in Bordeaux for the Black & Blue label on February 7 and 8, 1970, with Budd Johnson handling tenor and soprano saxophones in front of pianist Andre Persiany, bassist Roland Loblegeois, and drummer Oliver Jackson. Six tracks amounting to about 40 minutes of jazz were released a few years later on vinyl as The Last Album, and the 2002 CD reissue added "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "In a Mellow Tone," as well as an alternate take of "Nature Boy." Shavers was always a fascinating character whose abilities as trumpeter, composer, and vocalist made him a valuable addition to any band, most famously perhaps the John Kirby Sextet. His final recordings are wonderfully intimate and at times dazzling in their depth and intensity. This album should be sought out for the amazing nearly ten-minute jam on "Moten Swing," complete with a quote from "The Lady in Red" during the out chorus; for the remarkable interplay amongst all of the participants throughout, and for two extra fine examples of Shavers as blues singer. During "Baby Won't You Please Come Home," he works himself up into a knot while soliciting well-timed explosions from the drummer to emphasize his sorry state of mind. The slower and even funnier "Daddy's Got the Gleeks" takes the same set of emotions to more pathological extremes, with Shavers wallowing in a familiar but newly named melancholy, until he apparently extricates himself from chronic depression by locating a "brand new gal, five and six feet tall", who is capable of putting "her feet in the kitchen and her goodies in the hall." ~ arwulf arwulf
