New Phil Woods Quartet

Phil Woods

  • AllMusic Rating
    6
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

New Phil Woods Quartet Review

by Scott Yanow

When Phil Woods returned to the United States after several years in Europe, he formed a quartet with keyboardist Pete Robinson, bassist Henry Franklin and drummer Brian Moffatt that utilized electronics. Ten months of rehearsal resulted in four nights at a club and then little else before the band broke up. This LP, recorded at rehearsals in 1973, was the group's only album. On a pair of Robinson's challenging originals, the standard "Yesterdays" and a medley of Wayne Shorter's "Nefertiti" and Herbie Hancock's "Riot," Woods and Robinson challenge each other. However, the electronics do sound a bit dated, and the band was only in what should have been the early stages of its development; it sometimes sounds a bit uncomfortable and never really had a chance to mature.