Walter Savage is another artist from San Francisco's large and active jazz community. A bassist of considerable talent, this album debuts him as a leader. The title of the album is a take-off on William Shakespeare's famous conclusion that "Music soothes the savage breast." Often "breast" is erroneously substituted by "beast" and with the leader's name being Savage, well hence the title. But the music is anything but brutish. There's an assorted play list of compositions by Savage running the gamut from mainstream jazz, ...
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Walter Savage is another artist from San Francisco's large and active jazz community. A bassist of considerable talent, this album debuts him as a leader. The title of the album is a take-off on William Shakespeare's famous conclusion that "Music soothes the savage breast." Often "breast" is erroneously substituted by "beast" and with the leader's name being Savage, well hence the title. But the music is anything but brutish. There's an assorted play list of compositions by Savage running the gamut from mainstream jazz, such as "Cah La La La La La," the exotic "Thai Forest," and the modern "Morning Bird." It's on this track that Savage displays his considerable virtuosity on bass -- he takes a long solo that, instead of being boring, is riveting. If a Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra were ever to be composed, Savage would be an ideal candidate as the soloist. Humor is not forgotten, with two versions of a swinging "Gotta Use the Bathroom." One is instrumental and one is sung by Savage with a voice somewhere in between Joe Williams and Leon Thomas. One of the prime cuts on the album is Savage's woeful saga of "Timothy James" and his many driving violations bemoaning that the "only ticket he doesn't have is the winning lottery ticket." The title tune features the soulful sax of Bob Johnson who, with trombonist Al Bent, does good work throughout the session. Despite its menacing title and cover, Soothes the Savage Beast is almost an hour of well-written compositions engagingly played by a group of musicians who clearly know what they're doing. Recommended. ~ Dave Nathan, Rovi
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Add this copy of Soothes the Savage Beast to cart. $12.99, good condition, Sold by Friends of the Phoenix Library rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Phoenix, AZ, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by CD Baby.
