Review of Once Upon a Time (Dig)

To me this is a perfect jazz album. It has so much variation in the styles that one can never get bored listening to it. We have some hard bop tracks; Hash Down and Once Upon a Time, then we get some slow modals with Fantastic, That's You, some blues with The Blues in My Flat, even a spaghetti western type jazz with Black and Tan Fantasy. The only other Earl Hines disc I own was recorded in 1957 and that was just as amazing as this one, 9 years apart. On this recording you can tell that the band seemed to have a lot of fun playing these sessions simply because I can almost see the smiles on thier faces while the players each do thier own solos, which are marvelous. I'm a big Impulse! fan and this one stands out by far in my collection and sadly it was the only recording he did with the label. If you ever at a wedding and feel like the need to dance to a jazz track, get the DJ to slap on Hash Brown and the whole crowd will get up and move!