Jared Gold on Posi-tone

I've been listening to more organ music tonight: Jared Gold's All Wrapped Up.  Gold leads a quartet consisting of Ralph Bowen on tenor sax, Jim Rotondi on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Quincy Davis on drums.  The instrument conspicuous by its absence is the bass.  Is it really jazz if there isn't the thump of the bass?

Well, yes.  Gold has a very vigorous strike for an organ player and he has to fill in for the bass when the horns are up front.  He does a good job of that and more.  Gold plays the organ like a catcher plays baseball: he minds his post and manages the field.  The horns are prominent, as God intended, but the organ is always supporting the action.  If you were moving a resolution for more organ in jazz, you would want to introduce this album into evidence.  

Ralph Bowen knows what a saxophone is for.  His solos are brilliant.  I was constantly surprised by his changes and by his sense of where the sweet spot in the melody lies.  Rotondi's horn reminded me of a smoky room many years ago when another horn player reminded of why God made ears.  I won't neglect the drumming, which was flawless and rich.  

But Gold's organ was the interesting thing.  His solo work ranged between soulful singing and the precision of a computer dialing a phone number.  The latter was wonderful on its own, but it highlighted the mood of the former.  

Don't miss All Wrapped Up.  Tell 'em I sent ya. 

See How They Run

I received a very nice CD from Lucas Brown, who plays organ for The Three Blind Mice.  The Trio is led by sax man Victor North.  Wayne Smith plays drums.  The CD is entitled The Outsider.  I have been dancing to it all day.  The organ is relatively rare in jazz.  It doesn't have the strike of the piano or bass, or the dense cry of the horns.  Instead, it has a crushed velvet texture.  I like it, and Brown's playing makes me want to hear more.  

I also grew very fond of North's sax work by the end of the album.  It gives me that "come on back around" feelin', here is something you should have paid more attention to.  This is contemporary jazz worth listening to.  Check out the web page above to get the CD.  Trust me, you'll like it.  I have a couple cuts on my Jazz Note station. 

Larry Young's Magnum Opus

One of the recordings I picked up at the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago was Larry Young's Unity.  It's a Penguin Guide core collection item, and I just hadn't got around to it yet.  Wow.  This is twenty-four karat blues-based bop.  There aren't a lot of organists at the top of the list.  Jimmy McGriff comes to mind, and Joe Zawinul.  Young's playing reverses the old cliche: he doesn't make it look easy, he makes it look hard as Hell. He is obviously a virtuoso, but the instrument seems to be always tripping over itself.  It is as if he makes it do something it doesn't want to do.  That might be its wonderful charm. 

The band includes Joe Henderson on tenor, Woody Shaw on trumpet, and Elvin Jones on drums.  Jones is a busy man.  The organ fills the space that God made for the bass.  All of this is good, and it is soul-lifting music.  If you want to be moody, try Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron (either one or both).  If you want a future you can believe in, try this blast from the past.  

Here is a sample:

Larry Young/Monk's Dreams/Unity

 Check it out quick.  The coppers are on my tail.