Seasons is an album by jazz pianist Pete Jolly.
Pete Jolly's third album for A&M Records offers the closest recorded approximation of this musician’s talent yet offered the listener.
Because in these grooves, produced by Herb Alpert, Jolly is heard not only on standard piano, but also on the Wurlitzer Electronic Piano, accordion, musette, Sano Vox, and Hammond Organ.
The effect is startling to say the least, and at times a little unsettling as you wonder where the musician leaves off, and the engineer and technical studio wizards take over.
However, this album is no studio tour de force, but a "Live" recording in the sense that Jolly and fellow musicians Chuck Berghofer, Paul Humphrey, John Pisano, Milt Holland, and Emil Richards got together and improvised their way through 12 tunes in the space of four hours.
The session was basically improvisational, and was completely open end, says Jolly. “We literally improvised as we went along – using visual and musical communications between ourselves to let the tunes happen, breathe and expand.
Jolly’s most famous work is masterful but traditional jazz piano. Seasons is a completely different beast.
For it, Jolly eschewed his usual piano for wurlitzer, accordion musette, sano vox, and hammond organ, holing up with his players—bassist Chuck Berghofer, percussionist Emil Richards, drummer Paul Humphrey, guitarist John Pisano, and percussionist Milt Holland—in a largely improvised four-hour session, which was then cut down to what would become Seasons.
Seasons has earned infamy for being used in samples for artists like De La Soul, Cypress Hill, and Redman, but mostly the album sticks out due to its complete and utter uniqueness from anything else Jolly recorded.
Pressed here on spectacular-sounding vinyl, Seasons swings with Jolly’s masterful musicianship and the understated, complementary instrumentation of his accompanying musicians.
But it surely is not your typical listen.
The idiosyncrasies of the instruments Jolly is using and the improvisational nature of the compositions lend the album an exploratory feel.
It’s almost as if Jolly and company were throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck. Incidentally, it’s the uniqueness of the session which is lauded by Berghofer in the new liner notes for this reissue.
Seasons didn’t sell well at the time—listening to it and placing it in the context of his previous work, one can understand why—and the album was the last Jolly recorded for A&M. It’s a curious and at times beguiling work.
Track listing
1. Leaves - 1:43
2. Younger Than Springtime - 2:14
3. Bees - 2:54
4. Rainbows - 1:11
5. Plummer Park - 4:25
6. Springs - 3:06
7. Seasons - 3:45
Written-By – Roger Nichols
8. Sand Storm - 2:02
9. Autumn Festival - 3:14
10. Prairie Road - 2:50
11. Indian’s Summer - 3:40
Arranged By [Brass] – Bill Holman
12. Pete Jolly - 1:45
Produced by Herb Alpert. All songs by Pete Jolly except where noted.
Companies, etc.
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Universal Music Enterprises
- Copyright © – Dusty Groove America Inc.
- Made By – EDC, USA
Credits
- Art Direction – Roland Young
- Bass – Chuck Berghofer
- Design – Chuck Beeson
- Drums – Paul Humphrey
- Guitar – John Pisano
- Layout [Reissue] – Chris Kalis
- Liner Notes [Original] – Bob Garcia
- Percussion – Emil Richards, Milt Holland
- Photography By [Front Cover, Portrait] – Jim McCrary
- Photography By [Snowflake] – Clyde H Smith
- Piano, Piano [Wurlitzer Electric], Organ [Hammond], Accordion, Bagpipes [Musette], Keyboards [Sano Vox] – Pete Jolly
- Producer – Herb Alpert
- Written-By – Pete Jolly (tracks: 1, 3 to 6, 8 to 12)
Notes
Released: 1970
Genre: Jazz, Funk / Soul
Length: 32:56
Producer: Herb Alpert
Label - A&M Records
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