Zoot Sims (Baden-Baden June 23 1958) (Zoot Sims/ Hans Koller/ Willie Dennis/ Adi Feuerstein/ Gerd Husemann) (Arthaus: 101710)

Recorded live at Baden-Baden on June 23, 1958
Zoot Sims (as, ts, cl), Hans Koller (as, ts, cl), Willie Dennis (tb) Adi Feuerstein (fl ), Gerd Husemann (fl ), Helmut Brandt (fl , bs) Hans Hammerschmid (p), Peter Trunk (b), Kenny Clarke (dr)

All The Things You Are
Alans Alley
Minor Meeting For Two Clarinets
Fallin In Love
Blue Night
Open Door
I Surrender Dear
Tangerine
These Foolish Things
Ill Remember April
Trottin

Open the door!
In 1958 Sims played with Benny Goodman at Expo 58 in Brussels, where he met the Viennese-born Hans Koller, then Europes coolest tenor sax.. Two years earlier Sims had made a Blue Note recording with the German pianist Jutta Hipp and he was keen to meet other European jazz musicians. So Jo Berendt, head of the jazz department at the then SWF, invited the two to a studio concert, supplementing the horn section with Adi Feuerstein and Gerd Husemann (fl , ts), Willie Dennis (tb) and Helmut Brandt (bs).; The ensemble also featured Hans Hammerschmid on piano, Peter Trunk on bass and on drums Kenny Clarke, who had quit the Modern Jazz Quartet and moved to Paris. What you get with Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden is a single jam session in which each number features a different lineup and instrumentation: Sims and Koller on tenor sax get in the frame with All The Things You Are, before switching to clarinet for Minor Meeting For Two Clarinets. Sims brilliant interpretations of Allens Alley and Tangerine are met with the nimble, elegant ripostes of Kollers Fallin In Love<?i> and Brandts I Surrender Dear. Blue Night<?i> (featuring a six-piece horn section) is a number which beguilingly alternates between big band and ensemble jazz. The same goes for Open Door, in which Kenny Clarke urges the ensemble inexorably onwards with every bar, and the alto saxophone of Zoot Sims briefly opens the door to allow the sound of the day bebop to flood the studio.