Quad LP/Tape Poll Klemmer, John: Intensity (QS)

[EMB]

Impulse/ABC AS-9244, from 1973.

Side 1:

1. Rapture Of The Deep
2. Love Song to Katherine
3. Prayer For John Coltrane
4. Waltz For John Coltrane

Side 2:

1. (C'mon an')Play With Me
2. Sea Of Passion
3. Last Summer's Spell



ED

 

[Quad Linda]

10. If you don't own this, you just don't like jazz. It isn't the mellow sound of his later Touch. It has more in common with John Coltrane. The Quad effect is good, though limited by the QS matrix. There is no Q8 of this. He blows incredibly. YOU NEED IT!

 

[EMB]

Klemmer was certainly an acolyte of Trane's in his early years with Cadet Concept and Impulse! But even then, he had smarmier tendencies that begin to surface here, and go full blown in TOUCH, his only major pop crossover album. Still, I'd take TOUCH over anything Kenny G. has ever perpetrated, and indeed, as my wife had always felt it to be a romantic album (and she has little to no interest in jazz), I'm inclined not to knock it too much....

ED

 

[Quad Linda]

Touch is Klemmer's best album. As usual, I picked it up as a new release. I was expecting something more rousing, but I loved it instantly. It is passionate, but mellow. Bound to make any woman purr. All the Klemmer Quads are Coltraneish. Magic & Movement, the last Quad, is my least fave, though far from bad. 1989's Music is the only bad album he ever did, IMHO.

 

[Jerfo]

I put out a video the other day on this album and specifically the first track, "Rapture of the Deep." I touch upon the quad-ness of the album at the 13:24 mark of the video. It should be queued up for you here:

I very much enjoy the quad mix on this album. There are so many notes flying by and listening to it in quad really opens things up.