***
Seamen (1926-72) was an outrageously gifted drummer. He’s on Joe Harriott classics Free Form and Abstract but the Staffordshire born player’s career was massively affected by a raging heroin addiction. On Meets Eddie Gomez he’s heard in 1968 on an album that showcases the work of Bill Evans double bassist the Puerto Rico born Gómez, now in his 80s, as the featured player.
With Evans and Shelly Manne issued the previous year Gómez appeared on A Simple Matter of Conviction. The Seamen trio is completed by the Whitechapel born pianist Tony Lee who died in 2004. Lee at one stage was house pianist at the Bull’s Head in Barnes.
You’ll know the tunes on Meets Eddie Gomez. That’s more or less guaranteed as it’s a standards affair. That ain’t a put down at all. I much prefer a good standards album any day rather than a recording full of tunes written by musicians who think they are composers but really, fundamentally, although they can write tunes, aren’t.
The way the bass is captured is excellent and helps give life to the recording. For Gómez fans his soloing on ‘Autumn Leaves’ is probably your first port of call. Certainly – not always the case despite the hype in some boosterish quarters – this is better heard on vinyl to get that extra depth and thrill although the digital version I am listening to on a streamer is fine. Lee’s at times bluesy piano playing is perfectly OK (the piano he’s playing on sounds as if it has experienced better days) but he takes more of a back seat compared with Seamen and the bassist. You can understand why Charlie Watts was an admirer of Seamen all the way through the album given the rigour of his technique and the immaculate time keeping and feel he contributes. I liked his work best on the reading of the Toots Thielemans classic, ‘Bluesette’. But with the best will in the world Meets Eddie Gomez isn’t a patch on A Simple Matter of Conviction.
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