Album Reviews

I don't what Rudy Van Gelder was thinking or doing when he recorded the opening tune "Zoltan," by Woody Shaw who's on trumpet here. Rudy's got Elvin Jones' drum kit mixed way up front in the right channel and he's positively nailed Jones' muscular cymbal sound. And he's got Young's Hammond B-3 appearing three-dimensionally well-focused and forward of a line between the speakers. That's unusual for Rudy. He gets great presence from Shaw's trumpet in the left channel and Joe Henderson's tenor in the right.

I don't what Rudy Van Gelder was thinking or doing when he recorded the opening tune "Zoltan," by Woody Shaw who's on trumpet here. Rudy's got Elvin Jones' drum kit mixed way up front in the right channel and he's positively nailed Jones' muscular cymbal sound. And he's got Young's Hammond B-3 appearing three-dimensionally well-focused and forward of a line between the speakers. That's unusual for Rudy. He gets great presence from Shaw's trumpet in the left channel and Joe Henderson's tenor in the right.

Shaw begins the tune with, of all things, a snare-driven march from Kodaly's "Hary Janos Suite"  because Shaw liked the bass line according to the annotation. Next up is a hard driving, almost heavy metal version of "Monk's Dream"  featuring just Young and Elvin Jones. Again, there's nothing subtle about Rudy's engineering. He's got everything up close and personal. 

Joe Henderson's "If" is a twelve bar rocker that gives both Shaw and the writer plenty of space to stretch out, while the object of Shaw's  "Moontrane" would be obvious to you even if you hadn't read the title.

This is anything but a soul-jazz album just because there's an organ. Instead of soul-organ Young plays cooler, shorter, more abstract chops. He says more by staying much of the time under  the musical weather, playing a simmer rather than grandstanding as the instrument is capable of doing.

This is an exceptional Blue Note musically and sonically. The quartet is on fire and Rudy Van Gelder put the mikes close and the reverb in the background. Way recommended.