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Mundell Lowe / Lloyd Wells / Jim Ferguson: Poor Butterfly

By Dan Bilawsky
November 28, 2015
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Mundell Lowe / Lloyd Wells / Jim Ferguson: Poor Butterfly

Few people could ever claim to have played and/or recorded with such a storied list of performers as

Sarah Vaughan

vocals
1924 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Sarah Vaughan,

Ben Webster

saxophone, tenor
1909 - 1973

" data-original-title="" title="">Ben Webster,

Billie Holiday

vocals
1915 - 1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Billie Holiday,

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker,

Carmen McRae

vocals
1920 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Carmen McRae,

Ella Fitzgerald

vocals
1917 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Ella Fitzgerald,

Blossom Dearie

piano and vocals
1926 - 2009

" data-original-title="" title="">Blossom Dearie,

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie,

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans, and

" data-original-title="" title="">Lester Young. But Mundell Lowe can. In fact, that list barely scratches the surface when it comes to the legends that Lowe has worked with over the course of his lifetime. At ninety-three years of age he's now a legend himself, standing tall as the elder statesman of jazz guitar, serving as a link to the past, and living in the present.

With Poor Butterfly Lowe shows that his warmth, taste, intelligence, and technique are still fully intact. He teams up with a pair of musicians that he's worked with in duo settings in the past—guitarist Lloyd Wells, who worked side-by-side with Lowe on This One's For Charlie (Azica, 2000), and bassist

Jim Ferguson

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim Ferguson, Lowe's duo partner on Haunted Heart (LDM, 2007)—and delivers a collection of classics-in-miniature. Nothing breaks the five-minute mark—more than half the songs clock in under three minutes—and there's no wasted notes or passages. These three play to the song, say what needs to be said, and simply move on.

While certain traits carry through a number of these songs—four-to-the-bar

Freddie Green

guitar, acoustic
1911 - 1987

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Green-esque rhythm strumming, concise single-note statements—each piece offers its own reward(s). There's a pleasantly cruising "My Shining Hour" for three, a beautifully-rendered Wells solo take on "Here's That Rainy Day," a sleepy and flowing "Poor Butterfly" for two guitars, a brief and moving "I'll Never Be The Same" that finds Lowe alone, and an album-ending Wells original that serves as a vocal feature for Ferguson. The configuration constantly changes from track to track, with three trio numbers, three solo pieces per guitarist, and three guitar duo performances in the mix, but everything is sonically and stylistically of a piece here. Poor Butterfly is a short-and-sweet collection of music with no shortage of elegance and grace.

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Track Listing

Line For Lyons; Poor Butterfly; I Loves You, Porgy; Here's That Rainy Day; My Shining Hour; I'm Through With Love; Alice In Wonderland; Last Night When We Were Young; For All We Know; I'll Never Be The Same; Every Time We Say Goodbye; Uncle John.

Personnel

Mundell Lowe

guitar

Mundell Lowe: guitar; Lloyd Wells: guitar; Jim Ferguson: bass, vocals (12).

Album information

Title: Poor Butterfly | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Two Helpins' O' Collards

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