The Great Pretender cover

The Great Pretender

Released

Trumpeter Lester Bowie’s first album for ECM, released in 1981, features Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax, Donald Smith on piano and organ, Fred Williams on bass, Phillip Wilson on drums, and two singers: David Peaston and Bowie’s wife, Fontella Bass. It begins with a nearly 17-minute version of the title track that journeys through doo-wop, R&B, gospel, and multiple varieties of jazz, with Bluiett taking an astonishing solo — you’ll hear notes you never thought the baritone sax could produce. The rest of the album includes a New Orleans-style treatment of the theme from the 1950s kids’ TV show Howdy Doody; a sharp-edged urban funk version of the 1930s pop song “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain”; and three Bowie originals which blend Latin funk, AACM-style atmospherics, and his pyrotechnic trumpet playing to stunning effect.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Roxy Music cover

Roxy Music

Roxy Music
Blues & Roots cover

Blues & Roots

Charles Mingus
Cathédrale de Strasbourg cover

Cathédrale de Strasbourg

Charlemagne Palestine
Thembi cover

Thembi

Pharoah Sanders
Audentity cover

Audentity

Klaus Schulze
Away with You cover

Away with You

Mary Halvorson Octet
Théâtre Garonne, 2008 cover

Théâtre Garonne, 2008

David S. Ware New Quartet
Fly or Die cover

Fly or Die

Jaimie Branch
Fanatics cover

Fanatics

Jeff Parker, Matt Mayhall, Chris Speed
Glitter Wolf cover

Glitter Wolf

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom