Home At Last

This CD is getting hot in my computer drive. It's been spinning for the last five hours.
Ben Ohmart, Muses Muse

"...writing notes for a CD - at least for me - involves laying with it, really getting into the music. I don't write about what I don't like but there is always the possibility that with repeated listenings the bloom might come off the rose. 99 and 44/100 % of the time this does not happen. The music invariably sounds as good as when I put it on for the first time. Sometimes it even gets better and Home at Last is one of those times. "Goodbye" has all the ingredients to make one sad, and I experienced that tendency on the first go- round but Lanphere's playing is so good that he made me happy. The sadness was still there but the joy overrode it. This one is a masterpiece!"

- Taken from the liner notes by Ira Gitler whose Jazz Masters of the '40s has been updated and reissued as The Masters of Bebop (Da Capo)

Production Info:

produced by DON LANPHERE & JOHN BISHOP
recorded June 26 & 27, 2001 at IRONWOOD STUDIOS, Seattle
engineered by DONN DEVORE
mixed July 19, 2001 at STUDIO X by REED RUDDY
mastered by MARK GUENTHER at SEATTLE DISC MASTERING
photography by JOSH ARMSTRONG PHOTOGRAPHY
design & layout by JOHN BISHOP/ORIGINARTS

Reviews of Home At Last

Muses Muse (Ben Ohmart)
This cd is getting hot in my computer drive. It's been spinning for the last five hours. That's because this is the sort of jazz that was made for minds like mine. First off, it's over an hour in length, and the long 10 tracks spin with a constant, but smooth buzz that speaks always at night. But more importantly, the mindset of contemporary, st ...

All Music Guide (Dave Nathan)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: The Seattle-based Origin label continues its noble venture to bring as many of the performers from the Northwest's bustling, burgeoning jazz scene to a wider audience. This time the label has teamed erstwhile soprano/tenor saxophone player Don Lanphere with one of the area's more active groups, New Stories. Made up of Marc Seales ...

Earshot Magazine, January 2002 (Peter Monaghan)
Time to take stock again of new Northwest jazz releases. First, one that you will probably already have if you know that it's out, and that you may well buy without my encouragement once you learn that it is: Don Lanphere and New Stories' "Home At Last" (Origin). The master saxophonist, a sure-fire pleaser, seasoned over 50 years of topfligh ...

JazzTimes 2001 (Ira Gitler)
Ira Gitler Top 5 CDs: Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy in South America, Vol. 3 (CAP) Roy Haynes Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker (Dreyfus Jazz) Kenny Drew Jr. Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (TCB) Don Lanphere and New Stories Home at Last (Origin) Russell Malone Heartstrings (Verve) ...

All About Jazz (Joseph Blake)
Veteran tenor saxophonist Don Lanphere is a modern Lazarus, a bebop-blowing master brought back to life by Jesus. The 73-year-old Yakima-bred musician was a teenaged fixture on the New York scene during 52nd Street heyday. He made his recording session debut with Max Roach and Fats Navarro in New York in 1948 and hung out with Charlie Parker at beb ...

Berman Music Review (Butch Berman)
One of my fave jazz trios is Seattle's New Stories, and one of my fave sax players is Don Lanphere, who lives in Kirkland, Wash., Seattle's over-the-bridge neighbor. When these four get together to play, they are ready to SAY SOMETHING; the new Origin CD Home at Last is another excellent choice for any true jazz lover of the bebop era to embra ...

amazon.com (amazon.com)
You don't have to be from the Northwest to appreciate this Seattle legend. He played with Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker in the 40's and returned to recording in the 80's. Don had a buttery tone in that mellow zone somewhere between Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. The only other player who had this kind of sound was Bud Johnson - like melting am ...

JazzTimes (Harvey Siders)
No matter what Thomas Wolfe predicted: you can go home again. Saxophonist Don Lanphere managed to get back there. From "the apple" to the Apple, and a final return to "the apple"-"the apple" being rural Wenatchee, aka "the apple capital of Washington." The moves correspond with the parameters of Lanphere's career: from a promising jazz launch in ...