Raising The Bar

Weiss, Mort

SMS Jazz, 2010, CD
Instrument: Clarinet

Issue: 16.1

Jazz Ruler Type: Bebop

Performance: 4

Sound: 3

Score:

O’s Notes: It takes a lot of confidence, talent and endurance to perform an entire session of solo clarinet. Weiss gives us full emotional engagement. This is the self-proclaimed culmination of Mort’s ‘second’ career, resurrected in 2001 after a forty-year layoff! He is a sharp as ever, gracing us with warm passages on “Alfie” and with countless fleeting runs during the 17 selections. They are mostly standards with a few originals. He states this is his last recording citing the economic downturn of 2009 and eroding music industry as the reason for termination. But at 75, Weiss remains in good health and is on top of his game as a musician without doubt. We listen to Raising The Bar in admiration, knowing there will be more from Mort, at live concerts and we hope in the studio as well. Surely this is a strong statement.

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