Seasons

Pete Jolly

Seasons

Future Days Recordings

March 29, 2024
Web Exclusive

By Frank Valish

Pete Jolly was a jazz pianist who rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s for his work and albums, earning two Grammy Award nominations and finding his music used in many television shows and films. In the late 60s, Herb Alpert signed Jolly to his A&M record label, which subsequently released three of Jolly's records. Herb Alpert presents Pete Jolly in 1968, Pay attention in 1969 and Seasons in 1970. The last of these has been out on vinyl since 1971. Future Days Recordings, an imprint of Light in the Attic, brings Seasons back on the market in the form it truly belongs in, remastered from the original analog tapes.

Jolly's most famous work is the masterful yet traditional jazz piano. Seasons it's a whole different beast. So Jolly eschewed his usual wurlitzer piano, musette accordion, sano vox and hammond organ, sticking with his players – bassist Chuck Berghofer, percussionist Emil Richards, drummer Paul Humphrey, guitarist John Pisano and percussionist Milt Holland – largely improvised four-hour session, which was then whittled down to what would become Seasons.

Seasons has gained notoriety for being used on samples for artists such as De La Soul, Cypress Hill and Redman, but mostly the album stands out for its complete and utter uniqueness from anything else Jolly has recorded. Pressed here on stunning sounding vinyl, Seasons it sways with Jolly's masterful musicianship and the understated, complementary orchestration of his accompanying musicians. But it's definitely not your typical listen. The idiosyncrasies of the instruments Jolly uses and the improvisational nature of the compositions give the album an exploratory feel. It's almost as if Jolie and company were throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck. Incidentally, it is the uniqueness of the session that Berghofer praises in the new liner notes for this reissue.

Seasons It didn't sell well at the time – listening to it and placing it in the context of his earlier work, one can see why – and the album was the last that Jolly recorded for A&M. It's a strange and sometimes fascinating job. Fortunately it is back in print. (www.lightintheattic.net)

Author Rating: 8/10