''The Great Pretender'' is the debut album by American jazz trumpeter

Lester Bowie Lester Bowie (October 11, 1941 – November 8, 1999) was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Biography Born in t ...

, recorded in June 1981 and released on ECM later that year.

Reception

The

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 databas ...

review by Michael G. Nastos stated: "''The Great Pretender'' is a perfect title for this effort, a mix of funk and humor, gospel and jazz, with no small points of reference to

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

, early

doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

Mahalia Jackson Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to t ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

, and

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific out ...

... ''The Great Pretender'' falls just short of Bowie's magnum opus ''

The 5th Power ''The 5th Power'' is a live album by Lester Bowie recorded for the Italian Black Saint label and released in 1978. It was recorded during a concert tour of Europe by Bowie's group "From the Roots to the Source" and features performances by Bowie ...

'', but not by much in terms of sheer modernism. It's utterly enjoyable creative jazz, worthy of a space in your collection."Nastos, M. G
AllMusic Review
accessed May 9, 2011

Track listing

# "

The Great Pretender "The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by The Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single in November 1955. The words and music were written by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successfu ...

" (

Buck Ram Samuel "Buck" Ram (November 21, 1907 – January 1, 1991) was an American songwriter, and popular music producer and arranger. He was one of BMI's top five songwriters/air play in its first 50 years, alongside Paul Simon, Kris Kristofferson, Jimm ...

) – 16:22 # "It's Howdy Doody Time" (

Edward Kean Edward George Kean (October 28, 1924 – August 13, 2010) was an American television pioneer and writer who helped create ''Howdy Doody, The Howdy Doody Show'' and wrote over 2,000 episodes of the program. Early years Kean was born in 1924 i ...

) – 2:08 # "When the Doom (Moon) Comes over the Mountain" (

Harry M. Woods Henry MacGregor WoodsIMDb bio for Harry M. Woods
(November 4, 1896 – January 14, 1970) was a

, Howard E. Johnson; Lester Bowie (arr.)) – 3:39 # "Rios Negroes" (Bowie) – 7:17 # "Rose Drop" (Bowie) – 7:28 # "Oh, How the Ghost Sings" (Bowie, Donald Smith, Fred Williams,

Phillip Wilson Phillip Sanford Wilson (September 8, 1941 – March 25, 1992) was an American blues and jazz drummer, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Uni ...

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classic ...

, Martin Wieland) 5:50

Personnel

– trumpet *Donald Smith – piano, organ *Fred Williams – bass, electric bass *

– drums

Additional musicians ("The Great Pretender")

Hamiet Bluiett Hamiet Bluiett (; September 16, 1940 – October 4, 2018) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument was the baritone saxophone, and he was considered one of the finest players of this instrument. A membe ...

– baritone saxophone *

Fontella Bass Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter best known for her number-one R&B hit " Rescue Me" in 1965. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Early life Fontella Bass was b ...

– vocal *

David Peaston David Peaston (March 13, 1957 – February 1, 2012) was an American R&B and gospel singer who in 1990 won a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist. He was mostly known for the singles, "Two Wrongs (Don't Make it Right)" and " ...

– vocal

Technical personnel

– producer * Martin Wieland – engineer * Dieter Rehm – cover design, cover photography * Helmut Frühauf – liner photography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Pretender, The 1981 albums ECM Records albums Lester Bowie albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher