Jimmy Wisner - Time & Space

Though he's known more as a producer and arranger than a recording artist, Jimmy Wisner did put out some albums under his own name. The ten-track Time and Space compilation draws equally from two albums he did for Cameo-Parkway's Wyncote label in the mid-'60s, The Girl from Ipanema and Cast Your Fate to the Wind. For the most part, these are pleasant and unexceptional straightforward jazz outings based around Wisner's compositions (he wrote all the selections) and piano, whether he's approaching a mild bop mood or getting slower and more lyrical, as he does on the closing Epilogue. Despite a title and cover art that hint at exotica, there's little eccentricity, and no hints of the rock & roll he performed as the guy behind Kokomo's 1961 instrumental hit Asia Minor (or wrote as the composer of Don't Throw Your Love Away, a British Invasion hit for the Searchers). He plays around with time signatures amusingly on Five to Four; uses strings on the ballad Kimberly; gets into an Afro-Cuban mood on El Viento; and does venture into exotica on Time and Space, with its vibes and haunting wordless vocals by Norma Mendoza. George Winston penned a brief appreciative sleeve note, though otherwise the packaging is on the basic side for this reissued material