Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Light Reprieve
2. Buzzard Lope
3. Blue Monday
4. Zonky
5. Later for the Rock
6. Sweet and Lovely
7. Dear John
8. Blue Friday
9. Everything Happens to Me [Short Version]
10. Mardi Gras
11. What a Diff'rence a Day Makes
12. For All We Know
13. Ill Wind

Disc 2:

1. If I Could Be with You
2. I've Got the World on a String
3. Me 'N' Mabe
4. Everything Happens to Me [Long Version]
5. All of Me
6. Intermezzo
7. But Not for Me
8. All the Way
9. How Long Has This Been Going On
10. With a Song in My Heart
11. Imagination
12. What Is There to Say
13. There Is No Greater Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163120 in Music
• Released on: 2005-10-04
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

Tenor Sax Master
Ike Quebec was a surperb musician who has been almost totally ignored by many music historians. Trained as an orchestral musician as well as a featured soloist, he found himself less in demand as the big-band era began to fade. In 1959 Alfred Lion knew Quebec was something special and produced these fabulous Blue Note singles during what is considered his comeback years from 1959-1962. Quebec cut four 45 RPM dates over a two or so year period. Most of the consistantly great 26 selections here offer the big, vibrant tone, bluesy phrasing, and magnificent heart felt solos Quebec is known for by his fans. Great set.

Fantastic & Finally Affordable!!
These great recordings have only been previously available on a long out-of-print Mosaic Records set that commanded stratospheric prices. Now, Blue Note has reissued them in a nice package with fantastic sound. Accessible, soulful and thoroughly enjoyable. Grab it while you can!!

Epitath for a giant?
In his excellent sleeve notes Bob Porter from WBGO says, "If you are coming to these sides for the first time, you are in for a treat". I was. They are! The disks have Quebec playing with an ever changing array of sidesmen, with prominent organ playing from Edwin Swanston (Tracks 1 to 8), Sir Charles Thompson (Disk 1 9-13 Disk 2 1-4) and Earl Van Dyke (the Motown EVD?)[Disk 2 5-13).The Sir Charles tracks are a basic quartet whereas on the other tracks there is the addition of a guitarist. Whatever the style or genre that the compositions embrace Quebec stamps an authority on them all, but always allows space for (particularly the organ players) to solo. Nor, as the strictures of the sessions might have suggested, are they in any way formulaic, they are played as the sleevenotes suggest 'with creativity and conviction'. Despite the price this would seem like a good place to start to listen to Quebec, still undiminished in his playing despite health problems that were obviously starting to beset him. I'm only amazed that the sessions are still current in the Blue Note catalogue and having been unavailable for so long ought to be snapped up before they disappear.