''Kwamina'' is an album by American jazz pianist

Billy Taylor Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the a ...

featuring jazz interpretations of compositions from the

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

Kwamina ''Kwamina'' is a musical with the libretto by Robert Alan Aurthur and music and lyrics by Richard Adler. Production The musical opened in out of town tryouts in Toronto, where, as noted by Ken Mandelbaum "The reviews were promising",Mandelbaum, ...

'' written by

Richard Adler Richard Adler (August 3, 1921 – June 21, 2012) was an American lyricist, writer, composer and producer of several Broadway shows. Life and career Adler was born in New York City, the son of Elsa Adrienne (née Richard) and Clarence Adler. His ...

which was recorded in 1961 and released on the Mercury label.Billy Taylor discography
accessed November 26, 2012

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

awarded the album 3 stars stating "the music never seriously grabs the listener's attention, though the musicians are playing up to the level one expects of them. Serious Billy Taylor fans will undoubtedly still want to search for this obscure, long unavailable record".Dryden, K
Allmusic Review
accessed November 26, 2012

Track listing

''All compositions by Richard Adler'' # "Something Big" - 3:36 # "I'm Seeing Rainbows" - 2:54 # "Ordinary People" - 4:21 # "The Cocoa Bean Song" - 3:12 # "What's Wrong With Me" - 2:53 # "Nothing More to Look Forward To" - 4:34 # "Another Time, Another Place" - 3:40 # "Happy Is the Cricket" - 4:23 # "Sun Is Beginning to Crow" - 3:08

Personnel

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

* Clark Terry -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, flugelhorn *

Julius Watkins Julius Watkins (October 10, 1921 – April 4, 1977) was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the ''Down Beat'' critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for M ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

Jimmy Cleveland James Milton Cleveland (May 3, 1926 – August 23, 2008) was an American jazz trombonist born in Wartrace, Tennessee.

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

Phil Woods Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...

- alto saxophone * Frank Wess -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with C ...

- baritone saxophone *

Les Spann Leslie Spann Jr. (May 23, 1932 – January 24, 1989) was an American jazz guitarist and flautist. As a sideman he recorded with Nat Adderley, Benny Bailey, Bill Coleman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Curtis Fuller, Red Garland, Benny Goodman, Sam Jon ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* George Duvivier - bass *

Osie Johnson James "Osie" Johnson (January 11, 1923, in Washington, D.C. – February 10, 1966, in New York City) was a jazz drummer, arranger and singer. Johnson studied at Armstrong Highschool where he was classmates with Leo Parker and Frank Wess. He firs ...

- drums * Jimmy Jones Jr. - arranger

References

{{Authority control 1961 albums Billy Taylor albums Mercury Records albums