Victor Feldman
Suite Sixteen – The Music of Victor Feldman (Original Jazz Classics 1768)

I think my fascination with Victor Feldman must be one of the more difficult ones to pinpoint – it must be my ongoing interest in third-tier jazz guys who started out brightly only to be outshone by the superstars, and ended up working in relative anonymity as session players.

Feldman fits that description to a tee – he cut several solid cool jazz albums in the 50s, and by the 70s he was a name in the credits on Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy album. Which I think is pretty great, when you think about it. Something about the image of these forty-something jazz guys getting called in to play on a record for these grubby rock guys. But the cool thing is, Victor probably dug it, you know? He just seems to have had that demeanor about him, where he'd be equally content on his own album or on "My Old School."

Suite Sixteen was an early Feldman release, a big-band effort from '55, before Feldman had come to America to get with the west coast scene. For London cool jazz, this is pretty "in" stuff, very breezy but way melodic and cool, kool. Victor plays mainly vibes, though he ass-kicks the album off with some ass-kickin' drums ("Cabaletto"). The band is smoulderin', with no huge names (Dizzy Reece, Ronnie Scott, and Feldman are probably the most well-known cats here), but a lotta huge playin'.

Nothing on this album that I couldn't live without, but for a mid-50s big band record it's pretty nice. Probably the best track on here is the "Pink Panther"-esque "Duffle Coat," but the whole album is consistent. I can hardly say it's one of the most incredible jazz albums ever made, in fact I'd say there's probably like four or five hundred jazz albums I'd recommend before this one, but that really has more to do with the inherent quality of jazz as a genre than the inferiority of this particular record.

It's Sunday morning music, or maybe weekday sunset music, or maybe Tuesday morning music. Oh wait, I know, it's music. Of course, now I remember.

No real fireworks here, but some great tunes and overall, a real sense of fun coming from the performances. Some Latin percussion bolsters several of the tracks, but mostly this is straightforward blowin' as only the Brits could do. That was not, by the way, a reference to the Profumo sex scandal of 1962! I will NOT turn the Loud Bassoon Record Guide into a sleazy tabloid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Review by Harold Potter