Ace, key DB. ‘The perfect bridge between his spacey late-60s attempts to mimic Miles, and his tighter early-70s jazz-funk with the Mizells.’ Trumpet-tenor-flute; Duke Pearson on electric piano.
‘Best of all his Blue Notes… Quebec is on cracking form here, and his pitch and phrasing on Someday My Prince Will Come should be a lesson to all young jazz players. Green has, for us, his finest hour, ripping though My One And Only Love and If I Should Lose You with a ruggedness of emotion that goes hand and hand with the simplicity of diction. Not a single note is wasted’ (The Penguin Guide To Jazz).
Giddily lovely ballads from 1962, with Chuck Israels taking over from Scott LaFaro.
That’s Nico on the cover.
From 1969, this first collaboration with Harold Land — questing but chilled post-bop — is probably the best.
Steeped in the compositions of Joe Chambers, the closer Pompeian is a tour de force; opening as a waltz, detouring into moody marimba.
‘Classic vinyl.’
Wonderful third album, from 1975, with the almighty jazz-funk masterpiece Rock Creek Park and the get-down-and-party murder of Happy Music (as rinsed by Kool Herc and a cast of millions). Takes your troubles off your mind.
‘Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series.’
Perhaps her greatest LP, recorded at FAME in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with Rick Hall and the gang, released by Cadet in 1968. A handful of belters, a couple of Don Covay songs, excellent interpretations of Steal Away and Otis’ Security… the marvellously sympathetic musicianship of Carl Banks, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett and co… and the almighty I’d Rather Go Blind.
Larry Marshall and Alvin Leslie, backed by The Revolutionaries and blazing horns, produced by Alvin Ranglin.
Accomplished late-seventies reggae, never properly released till now; shot through with Marshall’s moody intensity and craftsmanship.
His startling set of duets with Larry Young in 1977. On the first three, he plays piano, with Larry Young on organ and synthesizer. With a romantic flourish, he does justice to Trane’s After The Rain, alone at the keyboard. Then Young ‘takes over, cranking out hard-driving riffs that owe more to the hard rock of Deep Purple and Atomic Rooster than Jimmy Smith, as Chambers lays down a thundering backbeat full of high-impact tom rolls. Out of print for decades, this wild album’s reemergence is long overdue’ (The Wire).
Check your Bobby Hutcherson Blue Notes from the late-60s — records like Oblique and Spiral — for how Joe Chambers bends them round the wall and into the top corner, with his musicianship and compositions both.
Premier sampled Mind Rain for Nas’ NY State Of Mind (to put you out of your misery).
Very warmly recommended.