Four Seasons - 40th Anniversary Edition
Bobby Hutcherson
Four Seasons – 40th Anniversary Edition is a 2025 Music On Vinyl reissue of vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s standards album, recorded in 1983 in the Netherlands and first released in Japan in 1984 as Nice Groove before a wider Timeless Records issue in 1985. The session teams Hutcherson with pianist George Cables, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Philly Joe Jones for a straight‑ahead, hard‑bop‑leaning program that puts his touch, time feel, and melodic imagination on familiar material rather than the more harmonically knotty originals he was often associated with in the 1960s. The anniversary edition appears on 180‑gram audiophile black vinyl and includes an insert with newly written liner notes by critic Scott Yanow, who emphasizes both the all‑star lineup and Hutcherson’s relaxed but commanding form.
Across seven tracks—“I Mean You,” “All of You,” “Spring Is Here,” “Star Eyes,” “If I Were a Bell,” “Summertime,” and “Autumn Leaves”—the quartet works mostly at medium and medium‑up tempos, giving each tune room for extended solos without drifting into blowing‑session looseness. Hutcherson’s vibes float over Cables’s harmonically rich comping and concise solos, with Lewis and Jones providing a swinging, old‑school rhythmic foundation that connects the date back to ’50s and ’60s hard bop even as the recording quality and interplay feel very much of the ’80s. The 40th‑anniversary package highlights the album as a straightforward but exceptionally tasteful “players’ record”: an under‑sung standards set that shows Hutcherson not as an avant‑gardist or conceptualist, but as a deeply lyrical improviser working inside the classic songbook with a superb, seasoned band.
Four Seasons - 40th Anniversary Edition
Bobby Hutcherson
Four Seasons – 40th Anniversary Edition is a 2025 Music On Vinyl reissue of vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s standards album, recorded in 1983 in the Netherlands and first released in Japan in 1984 as Nice Groove before a wider Timeless Records issue in 1985. The session teams Hutcherson with pianist George Cables, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Philly Joe Jones for a straight‑ahead, hard‑bop‑leaning program that puts his touch, time feel, and melodic imagination on familiar material rather than the more harmonically knotty originals he was often associated with in the 1960s. The anniversary edition appears on 180‑gram audiophile black vinyl and includes an insert with newly written liner notes by critic Scott Yanow, who emphasizes both the all‑star lineup and Hutcherson’s relaxed but commanding form.
Across seven tracks—“I Mean You,” “All of You,” “Spring Is Here,” “Star Eyes,” “If I Were a Bell,” “Summertime,” and “Autumn Leaves”—the quartet works mostly at medium and medium‑up tempos, giving each tune room for extended solos without drifting into blowing‑session looseness. Hutcherson’s vibes float over Cables’s harmonically rich comping and concise solos, with Lewis and Jones providing a swinging, old‑school rhythmic foundation that connects the date back to ’50s and ’60s hard bop even as the recording quality and interplay feel very much of the ’80s. The 40th‑anniversary package highlights the album as a straightforward but exceptionally tasteful “players’ record”: an under‑sung standards set that shows Hutcherson not as an avant‑gardist or conceptualist, but as a deeply lyrical improviser working inside the classic songbook with a superb, seasoned band.