Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy On The French Riviera [Red Spain Import]

Dizzy Gillespie caught the bossa nova wave early on Dizzy On The French Riviera, and this Spanish import presses the 1962 album on 180-gram red vinyl with bonus tracks.

Recorded for Philips with Quincy Jones producing, the album finds Gillespie's band at a creative high, with a young Lalo Schifrin on piano and writing the arrangements, Leo Wright doubling on flute and alto saxophone, and Elek Bacsik adding guitar. Brazilian music was sweeping through American jazz that year, and Dizzy, who had championed Latin rhythms since the 1940s, was perfectly placed to ride it.

The record opens with a ten-minute stretch of Jobim's No More Blues (Chega De Saudade), giving the soloists plenty of room, before Schifrin's own Long, Long Summer settles into an easy sway. Desafinado gets a breezy, good-humoured reading, Pau De Arara turns a Brazilian folk song into a showcase for Schifrin's arranging, and Gillespie's own compositions let the leader stretch out with his bright, darting trumpet. Leo Wright's flute brings a lightness that suits the album's seaside theme.

Sunny without ever going soft, it is one of Dizzy's most charming records of the decade. The red 180-gram pressing gives it a suitably warm glow, a fine pick for anyone exploring where jazz met bossa nova.