| Angel Street | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 45:01 | |||
| Label | Blue Note | |||
| Producer |
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| Tony Williams chronology | ||||
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Angel Street is an album by the American musician Tony Williams, released in 1988. [1] [2] He and his group supported the album with a North American tour. [3]
All of the songs were written by Williams, who had spent the early 1980s working on his composition skills. [4] He was backed by Billy Pierce on saxophone, Charnett Moffett on bass, Wallace Roney on trumpet, and Mulgrew Miller on piano. [5] [6] "Pee Wee" was recorded by Williams's former bandleader, Miles Davis. [7] Williams thought that his compositional abilities were stronger on Angel Street, and that he possessed a better sense of melody. [8] He preferred that the group record only two or three takes of a track. [9] Williams used a personalized drum machine to help him construct the songs; he included short drum solos between the tracks. [10] [11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide |    [12] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette | [13] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [14] |
| The Windsor Star | A− [15] |
The St. Petersburg Times concluded that "Williams is unquestionably an expert and innovative drummer, but his composing skills—a recent concentration—are shaky... Most of the tunes ... are fuzzy and obtuse." [16] The New York Times noted that "the music is easygoing, even at fast tempos; Mr. Williams knocks the tunes around with carefree mastery, but too often he allows his soloists ... to reel off the steady strings of 16th-notes and arpeggios that are hard-bop's common currency." [5] The Los Angeles Times said that "the music, composed by Williams, is powered by his crisp stick work: rapidly shifting layers of rhythms coming from carefully tuned drums that almost give his playing a melodic quality." [17]
The Windsor Star stated that the "group kicks and swings healthily ... on uptempo outings like 'Obsession' and 'Red Mask'". [15] The Globe and Mail opined that "the ballads sound like most quintet's ballads—his musicians play them in a way that falls halfway between the dutiful and the inspired—but the heavy slugging, with Moffett as bullish as his leader, could only be the work of Tony Williams." [6] The Times praised Williams's "breathtakingly sophisticated rhythmic and textural detail". [18]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Angel Street" | 8:20 |
| 2. | "Touch Me" | 1:23 |
| 3. | "Red Mask" | 7:08 |
| 4. | "Kiss Me" | 0:54 |
| 5. | "Dreamland" | 9:36 |
| 6. | "Only with You" | 5:56 |
| 7. | "Pee Wee" | 6:39 |
| 8. | "Thrill Me" | 0:46 |
| 9. | "Obsession" | 4:19 |
| Total length: | 45:01 | |
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