Blue Hour

This article is about the jazz album. For other uses, see Blue hour (disambiguation).

Blue Hour
Studio album by Stanley Turrentine with The Three Sounds
Released	March 1961 [1]
Recorded	June 29 & December 16, 1960
Studio	Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Genre	Jazz
Length	37:30original LP 84:25 The Complete Sessions
Label	Blue Note BST 84057
Producer	Alfred Lion
Stanley Turrentine chronology
Look Out! (1960) Blue Hour (1961) Comin' Your Way (1961)
The Three Sounds chronology
It Just Got to Be (1960) Blue Hour (1961) Hey There (1961)

Blue Hour is a collaboration album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and The Three Sounds recorded in 1961 for the Blue Note label and performed by Turrentine with Gene Harris, Andrew Simpkins and Bill Dowdy. ^[2] The album was reissued in 2000 with an additional disc of unreleased recordings, as Blue Hour: The Complete Sessions (Blue Note 24586). ^[3]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[4]

The Allmusic review by Ken Dryden awarded the 2000 2CD Reissue 3 stars and describes it as "a very relaxed and bluesy release". ^[3] The original album was awarded 4½ stars by Michael Erlewine of Allmusic.

Track listing

Original LP

1. "I Want a Little Girl" (Murray Mencher, Billy Moll) – 7:03
2. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" (Andy Razaf, Don Redman) – 5:20
3. "Blue Riff" (Gene Harris) – 6:26
4. "Since I Fell for You" (Buddy Johnson) – 8:46
5. "Willow Weep for Me" (Ann Ronell) – 9:55

Bonus tracks on Blue Hour: The Complete Sessions CD 2:

1. "Blues in the Closet" (Pettiford) – 5:00
2. "Just in Time" (Comden, Green, Styne) – 5:40
3. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" [Alternate Take] – 5:33
4. "Where or When" (Hart, Rodgers) – 7:00
5. "Blue Hour" (Gene Harris) – 5:14
6. "There Is No Greater Love" (Jones, Symes) – 8:24
7. "Alone Together" (Dietz, Schwartz) – 4:40
8. "Strike up the Band" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 5:24

Recorded on December 16, 1960 (original LP & CD 2 tracks 1–3) and June 29, 1960 (CD 2 tracks 4–8).

Personnel

• Stanley Turrentine – tenor saxophone
• Gene Harris – piano
• Andrew Simpkins – bass
• Bill Dowdy – drums

Production

• Alfred Lion – producer
• Reid Miles – design
• Rudy Van Gelder – audio engineer
• Francis Wolff – photography

References

1. "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Mar 20, 1961. Retrieved December 16, 2024– via Google Books.
2. Stanley Turrentine discography accessed January 4, 2010.
3. Dryden, K. Allmusic Review accessed January 4, 2010.
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1424. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.