// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Swiss Movement watchful? It winds up following you.
| Swiss Movement | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1969 | |||
| Recorded | June 21, 1969 | |||
| Venues | Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland | |||
| Genre | Soul jazz | |||
| Length | 39:06 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producers | Nesuhi Ertegün, Bob Emmer | |||
| Eddie Harris chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Les McCann chronology | ||||
| ||||
Swiss Movement is a soul jazz[1] live album recorded on June 21, 1969 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland by the Les McCann trio, with saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey.[2][3] The album was a hit record, as was the accompanying single "Compared to What", with both selling millions of units.[1]
Reception and influence
[edit]| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  [4] |
| DownBeat |  [5] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [6] |
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best jazz performance, small group.[7] It reached No. 1 on Billboard's jazz album chart, No. 2 on the R&B chart,[8] and No. 29 on the LP chart.[9][10]
Harvey Pekar, writing for DownBeat in a contemporary review, panned the album as "cliche-ridden".[5]
A Billboard writer commented in 2006 that "what put Montreux on the recorded-live-in-concert map was the legendary Swiss Movement album".[11] Writing in AllMusic, Richie Unterberger calls Swiss Movement "one of the most popular soul jazz albums of all time, and one of the best."[4]
The tapes of this impromptu concert were originally recorded by the festival's organisers and then passed on to Atlantic, who decided to release them after paying a fee of less than $100.[12]
McCann and Harris teamed up again for a follow-up recording, Second Movement, released in 1971.[13]
Track listing
[edit]- "Compared to What" – (Gene McDaniels): 8:41
- "Cold Duck Time" – (Eddie Harris): 6:31
- "Kathleen's Theme" – (Les McCann): 5:45
- "You Got It in Your Soulness" – (Les McCann): 7:08
- "The Generation Gap" – (Les McCann): 8:45
- "Kaftan" – (Leroy Vinnegar) – bonus track on the 1996 reissue
Personnel
[edit]- Eddie Harris – tenor saxophone
- Les McCann – piano, vocals on "Compared to What"
- Benny Bailey – trumpet
- Leroy Vinnegar – bass
- Donald Dean – drums
References
[edit]- 1 2 Carr, Roy (2006) [1997], "Soul to Soul", A Century of Jazz: A Hundred Years of the Greatest Music Ever Made, London: Hamlyn, pp. 106–121, ISBN 0-681-03179-4
- ↑ "BBC - Music - Review of Les McCann & Eddie Harris - Swiss Movement". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
- ↑ Eddie Harris Discography, accessed June 22, 2017
- 1 2 3 "Swiss Movement - Les McCann, Eddie Harris - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
- 1 2 Down Beat: February 19, 1970 vol. 37, no. 4. Review by Harvey Pekar.
- ↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 96. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
- ↑ "'Swiss Movement' Grammy Nominee" (March 13, 1971) Billboard. p. 4.
- ↑ Goldmark, Daniel (2012) In "Slightly Left of Center": Atlantic Records and the Problems of Genre. In Ake, David Andrew; Garrett, Charles Hiroshi; Goldmark, Daniel "Jazz/Not Jazz: The Music and Its Boundaries". University of California Press. p. 165.
- ↑ "Billboard Top LP's". (February 28, 1970) Billboard. p. 70.
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1991) "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Albums". Billboard Books. p. 119.
- ↑ Ouellette, Dan (June 3, 2006) "On the Record". Billboard. p. 36.
- ↑ "EH | the Official Website of Eddie Harris".
- ↑ Edelstein, Paula. "Second Movement". AllMusic. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
