The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions
Ike Quebec was one of the great tenor saxophonists to emerge from the swing era with a sound and drive that came straight from the early giants of the horn, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Like Webster, he had a multi-hued sound, with a thousand gradations from honk to gruff aside to breathy sweetness. A featured soloist with Cab Calloway before slipping into obscurity, Quebec renewed an association with Blue Note in 1959, recording extensively with the label until his death in 1963. His singles are elemental music, much like those of Gene Ammons, and they show Quebec in all his glory, bouncing and wailing on jump tunes like "Zonky," "Mardi Gras" and "Me 'n' Mabe." But his finest moments came on soulful ballads and slow blues, songs like "Blue Monday" and "Everything Happens to Me," when he could embrace a melody with all the dimensions of his sound. Stuart Broomer
The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions
Ike Quebec was one of the great tenor saxophonists to emerge from the swing era with a sound and drive that came straight from the early giants of the horn, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Like Webster, he had a multi-hued sound, with a thousand gradations from honk to gruff aside to breathy sweetness. A featured soloist with Cab Calloway before slipping into obscurity, Quebec renewed an association with Blue Note in 1959, recording extensively with the label until his death in 1963. His singles are elemental music, much like those of Gene Ammons, and they show Quebec in all his glory, bouncing and wailing on jump tunes like "Zonky," "Mardi Gras" and "Me 'n' Mabe." But his finest moments came on soulful ballads and slow blues, songs like "Blue Monday" and "Everything Happens to Me," when he could embrace a melody with all the dimensions of his sound. Stuart Broomer