Verve
1976
Barefoot Ballet
About This Album
Issued on ABC in 1976, John Klemmer's Barefoot Ballet was the follow-up to the tremendously successful Touch in 1975. That set began to wrap up the various places he'd been musically in the early '70s while entering a new phase, where warm, rounded tones became his signature. Klemmer always stood outside of fusion circles, but his use of an Echoplex for his tenor opened many fusion fans to his sound. This date uses the Echoplex a lot less, tames the energy a bit, and looks with a confident gaze toward the era that would become smooth jazz with one major caveat: Klemmer was already a master technician who had come up through the big-boned honking tenors of hard bop and the modalism of John Coltrane. And unlike the hundreds of saxophonists who would follow him, Klemmer was, and remains, a brilliant melodic improviser. This set bears out the laid-back side of that gift. Accompanied by Dave Gruisin on Rhodes piano, Larry Carlton on acoustic guitar, Bernie Fleischer on flutes, bassist Chuck Domanico, drummer John Guerin, and percussionist Joe Porcaro, Klemmer wrote and arranged all but one of these nine tracks. The lone cover is of Janis Ian's classic "At 17," which was issued as a hit single and may indeed be the first track claimed for smooth jazz -- not a fair co-opting at all, since in Klemmer's reading of the tune, painted beautifully by Carlton and Gruisin, is a much deeper, darker emotionalism and sophisticated musicality than virtually any tune that ever came from the latter genre.
Track List

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