Dick Hyman - Fabulous (1963)

Review by Ken Dryden
The Command label had a lot of great jazz artists, but they frequently seemed stuck in instantly dated and very corny sounding commercial dates that obviously haven't stood the test of time very well. Dick Hyman is heard exclusively on the Lowery organ (a lightweight distant cousin of the better-known Hammond) and, although his supporting cast includes other jazzmen such as Bob Haggart and Osie Johnson (who, like the leader, were in heavy demand for all kinds of recording sessions), there's very little of interest to their fans on this record. "Danke Schoen" is recast as a slightly out-of-tune carousel calliope setting providing some humor, while it would be hard to believe that composer Alec Wilder wouldn't have stormed out of the studio had he been present for the wretched and bland take of his famous ballad, "I'll Be Around." Hyman is a superb pianist and pipe organ player who sounds overly restricted by the limits of this obsolete keyboard, so it is safe for nearly everyone to bypass this long unavailable record.