Ike Quebec - Soul Samba Bossa Nova

"We did this one today. Very complicated (dynamic) and one of the best sounding Blue Notes I've ever heard!" – Mastering Engineer Steve Hoffman

Chad calls this one of the best Blue Notes, alongside Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell.

"…As much as I'd love to relay all kinds of anecdotes about the challenges Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray encounter during the mastering sessions, I witness none. These boys know the sound of the facility and the Van Gelder masters like the backs of their hands…Back home a month later, I unpack some test pressings Chad Kassem has sent me…I hear the most realistic-sounding drums ever reproduced by my system. It's as though I'm sitting at the point of creation, experiencing the same high that brought such gifted musicians together as one. Steve Hoffman, Kevin Gray, Chad Kassem, and Don MacInnis have done Rudy Van Gelder and his Blue Note artists proud." – Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile, April 2008

This program of sultry, minor key music with a Brazilian tinge seems inspired by Ike Quebec, who was suffering from advanced cancer that would claim his life three months later. But here is big-toned, impassioned tenor is in tact. Quebec's take on the bossa nova craze that explored that year (1962) is more muscular than Stan Getz's and doesn't rely on the familiar Jobim and Gilberto songs of the day. He and Kenny Burrell solo on the sly, subtle rhythms of Wendell Marshall, Willie Bobo and Garvin Masseaux.
Originally released in 1962.

Willie Bobo, drums
Kenny Burrell, guitar
Wendell Marshall, bass
Gravin Masseaux, chekere
Ike Quebec, sax (tenor)