Compassion (Cecil McBee album)

Compassion
Live album by Cecil McBee Sextet
Released	1979
Recorded	August 3, 1977 at Sweet Basil, NYC
Genre	Jazz
Length	41:35
Label	Enja 3041
Producer	Cecil McBee
Cecil McBee chronology

Last updated March 21, 2019

Compassion is a live album by bassist Cecil McBee's Sextet recorded at Sweet Basil in 1977 and released on the Enja label.^[1]

Cecil McBee is an American jazz bassist, one of the most influential in the history of jazz. McBee has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of jazz albums.

Sweet Basil was a jazz club in New York City's Greenwich Village. Founded in 1974 by Sharif Esmat, it was considered among the most prominent jazz clubs in New York. Many jazz albums were recorded live at Sweet Basil, including Cecil Taylor's Iwontunwonsi, McCoy Tyner's Live at Sweet Basil (1989) and Solar: Live at Sweet Basil, and the Jean-Michel Pilc Trio's Together: Live at Sweet Basil. From 1981 to 1992 the club was owned by Phyllis Litoff and her husband Mel Litoff.

Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	^[3]

In his review for AllMusic, Scott Yanow called it an "excellent post-bop set" and stated "The excellent solos, particularly those of Freeman, are adventurous, yet still based in the hard bop/modal tradition".^[2]

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web.

Track listing

All compositions by Cecil McBee except as indicated

"Pepi´s Samba" (Chico Freeman) - 13:15
"Undercurrent" - 10:55
"Compassion" - 17:25

Personnel

The double bass, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra.

A trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group contains the instruments with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 1500 BC; they began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century. Trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century they have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape.

The flugelhorn is a brass instrument that is usually pitched in B♭ but occasionally found in C. It resembles a trumpet, and the tube has the same length but a wider, conical bore. A type of valved bugle, the flugelhorn was developed in Germany from a traditional English valveless bugle, with the first version sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modeled.

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References

↑ Cecil McBee discography accessed January 5, 2015
1 2 Yanow, Scott. Compassion – Review at AllMusic . Retrieved January 5, 2015.
↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 133. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.

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[1] Cecil McBee discography accessed January 5, 2015

[Allmusic-2] 1 2 Yanow, Scott. Compassion – Review at AllMusic . Retrieved January 5, 2015.

[RSJRG-3] Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 133. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.

v t e Cecil McBee
Studio albums	Mutima (1975) Birds and Ballads (1978) Alternate Spaces (1979) Flying Out (1982) Roots of Blue (1986) Power Trio (1990)
Live albums	Music from the Source (1977) Compassion (1977)