Kenny Burrell - God Bless The Child (Vinyl LP) PRE-ORDER

Expected Release Date: 07-August-2026 - This Pre-order will be shipped on or just before this date. Release dates are subject to alteration.

2026 repress of Pure Pleasure's reissue of guitarist Kenny Burrell's 1971 LP for CTI 'God Bless The Child'. Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London, mastered from the original tapes, 180g LP housed in a gatefold sleeve - AAA recording.

Kenny Burrell's guitar artistry is well-documented in his years with Oscar Peterson and on his first dates as a leader on the Blue Note label, but "God Bless The Child", his only date for CTI in 1971, is an under-heard masterpiece in his catalogue. Burrell's band for the set includes bassist Ron Carter, percussionist Ray Barretto, Richard Wyands on piano, flutist Hubert Laws, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and drummer Billy Cobham. CTI's house arranger, Don Sebesky, assembled and conducted the strings in a manner that stands strangely and beautifully apart from his other work on the label.

Sebesky understood Burrell's understated approach to playing guitar. Burrell didn't belong with the fusioneers, but he could groove better than any of them. Sebesky built a moody, atmospheric soundscape behind him, one that was as impressionistic as it was illuminating of a player who could dig in and chop it up -- as he does on his own composition "Love Is the Answer" and "Do What You Gotta Do" -- and stroke it smooth and mellow as on the title track, the truly sublime "Be Yourself", and Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born". This is Burrell at his level best as a player to be sure, but also as a composer and as a bandleader. Magnificent.

Press:

"As ever Pure Pleasure has done an excellent job of the mastering and pressing of this album, one that does full justice to Rudy van Gelder's original recording as well as the artistry of the musicians at work." - Jason Kennedy, The Ear

Tracklisting
Disc 1
Side 1
1. Be Yourself
2. Love Is The Answer
3. Do What You Gotta Do
Side 2
1. A Child Is Born
2. God Bless The Child