Paul Desmond | Easy Living

Easy Living Review

 

by Richard S. Ginell

As the Paul Desmond/Jim Hall quartet's recording activities gradually came to a halt by 1965, RCA Victor assembled the remains of a number of their later sessions into one last album. These are anything but leftovers, however -- indeed, they constitute the best Desmond/Hall album since Take Ten, more varied in texture and mood, and by and large more inspired in solo content, than Bossa Antigua and Glad to Be Unhappy. As a near-ideal example of this collaboration at its intuitive peak, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" opens with Hall paraphrasing the tune, and Desmond comes in on the bridge with a perfectly timed rejoinder that sounds as if he's asking a question. "Here's That Rainy Day" is another apt match of a standard to Desmond's sophisticated personality; he is at his dry, jaunty best on the uptempo "That Old Feeling"; and both have a ball jamming on the blues in Desmond's wry, quick "Blues for Fun." [Some reissues add a pair of outtakes, plus "Rude Old Man."] AllMusic

Paul Desmond 

Easy Living       

All compositions by Paul Desmond except where noted.

1. "When Joanna Loved Me" (Robert Wells, Jack Segal) - 5:48
2. "That Old Feeling" (Sammy Fain, Lew Brown) - 5:49
3. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke) - 5:51
4. "Here's That Rainy Day" (Van Heusen, Burke) - 5:43
5. "Easy Living" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin) - 7:08
6. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner) - 4:19
7. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) - 6:25
8. "Blues for Fun" (Paul Desmond) - 6:28
9. "Rude Old Man" (Eugene Wright) - 5:42 Bonus track on CD reissue
10. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" [alternate take] (Van Huesen, Burke) - 6:13 Bonus track on CD reissue
11. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" [alternate take] (Rodgers, Hart) - 7:47 Bonus track on CD reissue

 

• Recorded Webster Hall on June 5, 1963 (track 3), June 14, 1963 (track 8), June 25, 1963 (track 2) and at RCA Studio A in New York City on July 13, 1964 (track 9), July 14, 1964 (tracks 1 & 10), September 9, 1964 (track 5), September 16, 1964 (track 11) and June 1, 1965 (tracks 4, 6 & 7) .  

• Paul Desmond - alto saxophone
• Jim Hall - guitar
• Gene Cherico (tracks 3 & 8), Percy Heath (tracks 4, 6 & 7), Eugene Wright (tracks 1, 2, 5 & 9-11) - bass
• Connie Kay - drums

Easy Living is an album recorded by American jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond featuring performances recorded between 1963 and 1965 which were released on the RCA Victor label.^[1][2][3]

From Wikipedia