Ben Webster
Gone With the Wind
I think it says a lot that I can go from listening to GG Allin to Ben Webster in the same day. But that’s what being a true punk rocker means: your music world is constantly expanding and your appreciation for different genres is elevated. The punk and jazz connection is there in some form or another and I’m sure entire articles and even books have been dedicated to the subject. But, let me just flash back to a conversation I once had with Mike Watt (not name dropping – it happens) where he was trying to insist that musical genres only exist to make some guy in marketing’s job easier. I should also stress that he was playing Coltrane through the PA while his band set up. Anyway, I have been thinking about that statement for years and can’t wait for the next time I speak to him when I’ll ask him to explain what exactly he meant by that. He also recommended some great jazz records which I’ve listened to extensively.
So the connection is there, I suppose: punk and jazz. In many ways, they’re the same thing. And while I’ve come to have favorites over the years (just barely as I can hardly absorb the complexities of the “genre”), I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by random records that I run into. Ben Webster’s Gone with the Wind is one of these records.
Recorded at Copenhagen’s legendary Hazzhaus Montmartre in 1965, Gone with the Wind contains some of the better recordings of Webster’s standards and is one of the highlights of his later career. Recorded with an international rhythm section, these recordings cast a pretty wide net as they contain ballads, bops, and covers heavily driven by Webster’s tenor sax. Org music has reissued this record – previously unavailable for decades – on wonderful 180g white vinyl and it’s quite gorgeous.
As far as Webster’s music is concerned, this package is a winner. An absolute delight.
Get it here.
