Double Play!

Summary

Double Play! is a 1957 jazz album featuring pianists Russ Freeman and André Previn.[1]

Double Play!
Studio album by
Released1957
RecordedApril 30 and May 11, 1957
StudioContemporary's Studio, Los Angeles
GenreJazz
Length41:50
LabelContemporary
ProducerLester Koenig
André Previn chronology
My Fair Lady
(1956)
Double Play!
(1957)
Pal Joey
(1957)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[2]

It was recorded and released in 1957 on the Contemporary label, and re-released in 1993 in the Original Jazz Classics series.

Together with drummer Shelly Manne, the album, as its title suggests, includes eight baseball-themed original compositions by Freeman and Previn along with the standard "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".[1] (The rather risque-by-1950s-standards album cover features a model wearing a Hollywood Stars cap.) The album was advertised at the time as the first time that two pianists recorded "modern jazz" together.[1]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz suggested that the album was the best of Previn's early releases, being "the most uncomplicatedly jazz-driven".[2]

Track listing edit

  1. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (Jack Norworth, Albert Von Tilzer)
  2. "Who's on First?" (Previn) - 3:37
  3. "Called on Account of Rain" (Previn) - 5:11
  4. "In the Cellar Blues" (Previn, Freeman) - 5:01
  5. "Batter Up" (Freeman) - 3:58
  6. "Double Play" (Freeman) - 4:58
  7. "Safe at Home" (Freeman) - 6:03
  8. "Fungo" (Freeman) - 5:42
  9. "Strike Out the Band" (Previn) - 4:12

Track 1-5 recorded on April 30, 1957; tracks 6-9 on May 11, 1957

Personnel edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d AllMusic
  2. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1180. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.