Night Walker: Jack Nitzsche Story 3 / Various

Best-known for his work with Phil Spector on the producer's legendary "wall of sound," Nitzsche was a talented arranger, producer, writer and artist - who won an Oscar - and this is the third thoughtful overview of his work from the aces at Ace Records. It's got a few Spector tracks along with other interesting songs. As usual, the liner notes are worth the price of admission to any Ace project.

From my own point of view (a selfish one to be sure, since I was co-lyricist for some of the tunes involved), it seems silly to keep releasing these compilations of Jack Nitzsche's stuff without including at least SOME of the splendid second David Forman album, recorded in LA in 1977 and unreleased by Arista. There is a copy of the final mix in Mr. Forman's possession, supplied to him by the late, great, and much-lamented Hall Willner. There also might be licensing issues, but it's absolutely wonderful work, with a tremendous sense of physical depth. I recommend that, for the NEXT compilation, these guys give one of us a call.....

Respectfully disagree with Aj on the 'flow' issue.I always find Ace comps to be refreshing because they usually are not chronological. Some compilations seem more like reference books, with a predictable sequencing of sound, style, etc.Ace comps seem like the work of an intelligent DJ.BTW, also delighted with that Fleetwoods track - wonder if there's anymore from that session?

While I applaud this series of producer/.arranger CDs from Ace, the one really annoying feature of the comps is the sound & style of the songs which is all over the place from different eras of music. The content should have been arranged in a chronological order (or at least closer to it) in order to showcase the development of the arranger. This one is no exception which ridiculously kicks off with the most modern recording, a 2001 track, CC Adcock's revival of Johnny Otis' "Castin My Spell" then wanders all over the track before finally going out with the earliest recording on the set, Preston Epps' excellent "Bongo Bongo Bongo" from 1960. In between those two, the listener is taken on a roller coaster ride through an awkward mish mash of sounds and styles of music from years too far apart. As far as the selections go, there are some good one's here, not the least of which is Dick Glasser's 1965 production for The Fleetwoods of "Come Softly To Me", which is every bit as good as, if not better than their '59 hit version. A hats off also for the inclusion of Billy Storm's Infinity classic "Educated Fool". As I said earlier, the big fault here is the order of the tracks which soundwise, simply don't flow and tend to jar the listening experience.

On parle beaucoup de Spector et beaucoup moins de Jack Nitzsche. C'est dommage surtout que le garçon n'a pas qu'un peu participé à l'élaboration du wall of sound spectorien. Il est aussi et surtout un producteur, arrangeur, compositeur et musicien plus que doué. Preuve en est cette compilation, la troisième de la série lui étant consacré. C'est quasi un émerveillement constant: quasi car ça baisse un chouïa d'intensité à la fin, enchainant tout de même d'excellents morceaux mais un peu trop sixties tout le temps. Car la force de Nitzsche, à l'inverse d'un Spector, c'est d'avoir su s'adapter à certains changements (comme la stéréo et les seventies). Sur cette compilation, on est à chaque fois happé par le morceau et on ne sait pas se qui va débouler derrière, car Nitzsche s'adapte toujours au morceau (voire à l'interprète) pour en tirer le maximum. Ce qui fait que chaque titre est un petit univers entier et complet. Alors qu'un Spector applique systématiquement la même formule à tous, Nitzsche, toujours, part du morceau et l'enrichit au mieux. Constamment. Prenez "Expecting To Fly" du Buffalo Springfield, présent ici: morceau acoustique assez simple, Nitzsche le rend magnifique et majestueux. Orchestrations plus délicates que chez Spector (qui, lui, wagnérise toujours), il est aussi capable de trouver l'instrument original qui fera mouche et connotera le morceau comme il faut ou même, carrément, d'expérimenter. Spector, lui, ne saura évoluer. Et qu'aurait donné Cohen, Ramones et autres produits par Nitzsche plutôt que par un Spector très discutable sur ces coups-là ? Même son travail avec Ike et Tina ("River Deep...") ou Harrison ("All Things...") l'est, discutable. Tandis que Nitzche est capable de tirer le meilleur d'un Mink DeVille en 1978 (le dément "Just Your Friends" ici judicieusement placé après le "Little Boy" original des Crystals). Qui, d'ailleurs, sonnait comme ça en 1978, à la fois moderne mais en descendance directe du son spectorien ? Qui sonnait, en fait, si bien ? On a même droit en ouverture du disque à un rock garage enregistré en... 2001. Et ça le fait. Orgie de son donc avec cette compilation gratinée, chaque morceau possédant donc son grain, son univers, son unicité. Bien sûr, on possède déjà quelques morceaux ailleurs mais les compilateurs ont déniché également pas mal de merveilles (au hasard, "Night Time Girl" du Modern Folk Quintet) et on a de quoi faire avec 26 morceaux tous délectables, certains intensément réussis. Très bon son, copieux livret, c'est du beau travail et, invariablement, on ne s'en fait pas une seconde pour le volume 4 s'il y en a un (on l'espère): le sorcier Nitzsche a certainement pondu d'autres excellents titres. Superbe.

This 3rd instalment has taken a long time in coming since 'Hard Working Man' in 2006. We are treated to 26 tracks (72.48mins) from 'Ace' records. The tracks span the years 1960 to 2001, the C.C. Adcock track was one of the last to be produced by Jack in 1999 (released 2001). Many of the key tracks that didn't make it onto the first two volumes (Licensing/contractual reasons) have finally been compiled here. There are some fantastic Phil Spector label releases, there's the wonderful 'Expecting to fly' by The Buffalo Springfield and there's 'If my car could only talk' by the great Lou Christie. Among my favourites are 'June is as cold as December' by The Everly Brothers originally released on their fantastic 'In our image' LP. Other favourites are 'Puddin n' Tain' by The Alley Cats (you've made my day 'Ace' records - good to hear it with great sound quality) and 'Every window in the city' by wrecking crew member Jerry Cole - simply fantastic. Many different styles of music covered by many great artists - Darlene Love, Lou Christie, the Crystals, Billy Storm to name a few - great stuff. The sound quality overall as usual with any release from this reissue house is fantastic (17 Mono and 9 in Stereo). The 28 page colour booklet is a joy to read, excellent work, packed with info, pics and label scans (haven't made up my mind if I like the sparse f/cover or not though). Overall, a great package, if I have one complaint it would be that 'I wish this night would never end' by Ral Donner has been omitted - perhaps volume 4? 9/10. Highly recommended.

Love this album with it’s rare tracks on

I don't think this compilation is as good as the first two...

real good cd