The first time I heard jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson play was with pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Ron Carter performing Bouquet. It was on a Netflix DVD, One Night With Blue Note: The Historic All-Star Reunion Concert, recorded live for Blue Note’s 50th anniversary at New York’s Town Hall on February 22, 1985. When the historic Blue Note record label was revived in 1985, this all-star concert was held bringing together their legendary roster of musicians, a who’s who of jazz.
The concert was great! It opens with Herbie Hancock performing his popular tune Canteloupe Island featuring Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Joe Henderson on sax, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. But I bought the DVD primarily for Bobby’s beautiful ballad Bouquet.
Now, years later, I searched the internet and found the concert, as well as just the performance of Bobby Hutcherson’s Bouquet with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock. The YouTube video includes the short introduction from the DVD. This excerpt on Dailymotion doesn’t, but the quality is better. The audience was so moved they applauded before the piece was actually finished, but the musicians quietly played on to the end.
You can hear Bouquet on Hutcherson’s album Happenings in the Remastered 2006/Rudy Van Gelder Edition. This slightly mellower version includes Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and the smooth brush work of Joe Chambers on drums. It’s about a minute longer than the concert version and has a rich clear tone.
The three hours of brilliant performances were distilled down to the two-hour DVD, One Night With Blue Note All-Star Reunion Concert. You can see it here, or in this larger format. It’s also available in better quality on Dailymotion divided into two one-hour sections: Part 1 and Part 2.
I’ve posted other favorite beautiful musical selections across genres on my blog: Canadian harpist Kristan Toczko performing Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune; Serbian harpist Nadja Dornik performing her beautiful transcription of Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu; a kind of musical onomatopoeia in Bill Evans’s Peace Piece; the hauntingly beautiful Celtic music of Davy Spillane on uilleann pipes and low whistle; and the angelic voice of Eva Cassidy, who interpreted and delivered popular songs in her own inimitable way, with purity, passion and power.
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