Lenny Breau & Brad Terry Complete Living Room Tapes

This album is invaluable to anyone who loves jazz. Breau and Terry's musicianship here is impeccable and embody s all aspects of the genre. A little known must-have for music-lovers of any creed.Some of Lenny Breau's best and a great surprise from a little known clarinetist and whistler, Brad Terry. At times, Terry's whistling seems to come from nowhere in particular with some of the most melodic, enjoyable, and soulful solos around. Perhaps the best aspect of this album is the candidness and spontaneity with which it was recorded. Breau and Terry really explore and challenge each other and the interplay between two truly gifted musicians is a rare treat.

There is something enchanting about listening in on the private sessions of a master musician. Jimi Hendrix left us his home recordings and elsewhere John McLaughlin can be heard rehearsing his latest compositions with Bob Cornford. Clarinetist Brad Terry's "living Room" portion to this 2CD re-release has the same magic, with the rest being gleaned from entertaining live performances in and around Terry's homestate of Maine, a frequent pilgrimage to Breau's birthstate from his chosen home in Toronto and Los Angeles. The parochialism of these recordings is surprising given their clarity and warmth.

Lenny Breau had an early start in his father's country band, although he was often chastised for inappropriate bebop licks! The multiplicity of Breau's styles may have been his undoing, more than his long-term drink and drugs problems, as he never achieved popular or commercial success in spite of recognition and acclaim amongst fellow musicians including Chet Atkins. He resorted to teaching and writing a column to maintain an income, even though he was recorded by invitation with Tal Farlow and there was a growing following of his regular appearances at Donte's nightclub in North Hollywood.

On these cuts, Breau exhibits great understanding of melodic structure and his playing is imbued with joviality and humour. Tragically Lenny Breau was found murdered, in a Los Angeles swimming pool on August 12, 1984, aged only 43. Listening to his ability, compassion and sheer musicality, it is understandable how he has generated such an underground following who are loyal and fiercly protective of his memory.

Outside Europe, Brad Terry is probably most famous for these recordings, but he also has a track record with the Steve Grover Quartet and has created a legacy in Poland where he discovered the juvenile talent of "Trilogy" (average age 15 years) captured on Presence. His tone is full, New Orleans and with an Ellingtonian approach to counterpoint. He is an excellent match to Breau's thinner, focussed, straight ahead playing.

Here Terry also shows off his rare talent as a tuneful whistler - in fact quite an adventurous tuneful whistler with a style far removed as possible from Roger Whittaker. This is Dylan's harp blowing to that of Jean Toots Thielemans. Think I Wanna Be Like You.

Highlights include Breau's covers of classics Sweet Georgia Brown and Send In The Clowns, plus a sweet vocal rendition of My Foolish Heart (Beau's vocals are reminiscent of Bob Dorough's singing on the Miles Davis date in 1962 for Blue Christmas), and an artful extemporization of It Could Happen To You, showing off Breau's skill with space through his exquisite sensitivitity of the interaction between parallel bass and treble lines. That's something he shared with Bill Evans. Admirable is Flamenco which shines with technique but isn't the real article.

And hey! That's just the first disk!

McCoy Tyner's Visions kicks off disk 2 and it's a soulful beauty! Breau's playing of octave harmonics is nothing short of legendary and this track is proof enough. What have since been termed Breau/[Steve]Kimock Harmonics cascade liquid-like from Breau's magic-wand fingers.

There's more great playing from Breau in both solo settings and in duet with the competent Terry on plenty more covers of, for example, Autumn Leaves and Stella By Starlight, but the reason to buy this re-release if you already have the two original volumes comes in the bonus 4 tracks, totalling over an extra 30 minutes, including My Funny Valentine and 2 previously unreleased self-penned pieces.

Brad Terry was right to release these tapes, and Art Of Life Records have done another great job with mastering and packaging. These beautifully restored recordings are a real pleasure and can only add to Breau's fanbase.