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Following up on the recent post on jazz horn pioneer Julius Watkins, I made an effort to buy a couple more of his recordings off eBay. One that is fascinating is French Horns for My Lady, a 1962 release on the Phillips label.
There is a Wikipedia article on the album here, but one key piece of information would be the horn sidemen involved on the project: Gunther Schuller, Bob Northern, James Buffington, and John Barrows. Of the four, I think the first and last names listed are easily recognizable still, Schuller had a long career as a composer and more, and Barrows is associated with all the Wilder works and taught later at Wisconsin.
The opening work is Temptation, which may be found in a decent YouTube version embedded below. I say decent, as it loses some depth of sound for sure compared to my stereo LP copy on good speakers. When you listen to this, be sure you can hear it in Stereo; it is very 1960s, with crazy stereo effects.
Wow! Some great playing and production, Watkins has a great solo break about half way through and then there are all the sidemen doing their riffs. And how about that last note? It is a bit of a novelty album in a way, but totally worth seeking out.
If you go to Spotify and look for this work, searching Temptation Julius Watkins, you will find a very different recording by Watkins with Charlie Rouse on tenor sax. Much more relaxed, along the lines of club jazz. Of course, that version is also on YouTube, as below:
For actual listening, it is the better version: if you have a way to search it out, check it out too. There is a lot of great horn music out there.
