Ben Webster – See You at the Fair

An album connecting two recording dates

Ben Webster’s See You At The Fair brings together nine selections from two sessions in March 1964. The tenor saxophonist is central, but a change at the piano alters the setting: Hank Jones plays on the first date and Roger Kellaway on the second. Richard Davis on bass and Osie Johnson on drums connect both sessions. The line-up makes the album easy to follow without restricting it to one accompanying colour. As you move between tracks, attention need not remain entirely on Webster. Identifying the keyboard player, and sometimes the keyboard instrument, provides another concrete way into the programme.

Recorded on March 11 and 25 at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, the album was produced by Bob Thiele for Impulse!. Webster was then fifty-four. The frequently repeated description of this as his final American recording is too broad: he participated in further American sessions during the autumn of the same year. He moved to Europe late in 1964. The album consequently belongs to the later American phase of his career without requiring an unsupported claim of a definitive farewell. Its specific story begins with these two studio dates and the songs chosen for them, rather than a retrospective legend.

Hank Jones, Roger Kellaway and the harpsichord

Jones accompanies “Over The Rainbow”, “Our Love Is Here To Stay”, “In A Mellow Tone” and “Someone To Watch Over Me”. Kellaway appears on the title piece, “Stardust”, “Fall Of Love”, “Lullaby Of Jazzland” and “While We’re Dancing”. On the last two selections he plays harpsichord rather than piano. The change therefore involves more than a different person at the same instrument. It extends the quartet’s resources while retaining a small ensemble. Assigning the players by track also avoids the misleading impression that both pianists participated together throughout the album or that the instrumental colour remained identical across all nine performances.

Between these recording dates, Webster appeared at the same studio on Clark Terry’s The Happy Horns Of Clark Terry, also featuring Kellaway. Such overlaps reveal the close connections within the recording community. They do not justify adding every musician from a neighbouring session to this album’s credits. Phil Woods and Phil Bodner belong to other material subsequently included on an expanded CD. They are not part of the documented personnel for the nine-track LP offered here. Concentrating on Webster’s quartet is therefore not only a useful listening approach, but also a consequence of identifying the actual edition and its programme correctly.

The World’s Fair and familiar melodies

The cover places Webster beside the Unisphere, the large steel globe associated with the New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. The fair opened in April 1964, after both recording sessions. The photograph is therefore not evidence that the music was recorded there: the performances were made in the New Jersey studio. That distinction leaves the presentation’s appeal intact. A jazz musician appears against the imagery of a future-oriented exhibition, while much of the programme draws on established standards. Webster’s own title composition opens the record before the songs written by others, linking his identity directly to the album’s presentation.

“In A Mellow Tone” leads to Duke Ellington, whose orchestra was an important part of Webster’s career. “Our Love Is Here To Stay” and “Someone To Watch Over Me” connect him with George and Ira Gershwin; “Over The Rainbow” and “Stardust” add other widely recognised melodies. “Fall Of Love”, by Dimitri Tiomkin, supplies a then-current film theme. The combination keeps the repertoire open to both older standards and newer material. Listen particularly to how Webster introduces the melodies and how the accompaniment supports their progress. The familiar song forms provide orientation without predetermining every decision made during their interpretation.

The Impulse Acoustic Sounds Series edition

The LP offered here is AIMP 27350, part of the Verve/UMe Acoustic Sounds Series with Impulse as its associated label. It is a single 180-gram stereo LP running at 33⅓ RPM. Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound is named for mastering, and the publisher identifies original analogue tapes as the source. Reported “RKS STERLING” runout inscriptions for this edition correspond to that credit. They are not used to claim a more extensively documented tape lineage. The release remains distinct from earlier pressings and expanded CD versions, whose additional material cannot be assumed to belong to this record.

Quality Record Pressings manufacture and a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket are specified. The original nine-track sequence is retained: side A contains the title piece and three Jones performances, while side B presents four Kellaway selections and closes with Jones on “Someone To Watch Over Me”. The LP therefore combines the two session dates in an album sequence of its own. That organisation makes the small personnel change interesting to follow across the record. See You At The Fair offers a specific portrait of Webster in a flexible quartet setting, with two pianists and a carefully chosen repertoire, rather than a sweeping farewell to America. Michael 45 dispatches orders from Hilden, Germany, so you do not need to arrange your own US import. Please refer to the stated availability and delivery time for this item.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.

More by Ben Webster: Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson · Gentle Ben

Series: Impulse! – all 19 records: the house that Trane built

Musicians

Documented participants in this recording. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Ben Webstertenor saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
• Richard DavisbassParticipation: Album personnel
• Osie JohnsondrumsParticipation: Album personnel
• Hank JonespianoParticipation: A2, A3, A4, B5
• Roger Kellawaypiano, harpsichordParticipation: A1, B1, B2, B3, B4

Roger Kellaway: harpsichord on B1 and B4, piano on A1, B2 and B3. Hank Jones: A2–A4 and B5. Phil Woods and Phil Bodner belong to CD bonus material, not this LP.