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Title: Great Collection of the Ballad Ben Webster
Review: This Verve offering emphasises the ballad and blues stylings for which Big Ben is best known to most listeners. With backing from the likes of Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins (Ben's mentor), Gerry Mulligan, and Budd Johnson on saxes, Less Spahn and Herb Ellis on guitar, Oscar Peterson and Teddy Wilson on piano, and Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar on bass, and Louis Bellson, Alvin Stoller, and Jo Jones on drums. So you get a Who's Who from the Verve stable of fine jazz musicians along with your gorgeous late-night pretty jazz.A great companion/couterpoint to this disk would beQuadromaniafor a collection of his earlier work that often featured a tougher, more aggressive sound that earned him the nickname "The Beast"
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