Album Reviews

A straight-ahead, often fast-paced blowing session led by Plas Johnson, a versatile alto and tenor saxophonist who’s been heard by tens of millions, but known by very few. The theme from the “Pink Panther” includes Johnson’s most famous sax lines, but he’s played sessions for Frank, Peggy, Nat, Ella, Sarah, Ray, you first-name them.

Johnson played in “The Merv Griffin Show”’s house band for 15 years starting in 1970 and if that’s a turn-off, consider that so did Ray Brown, Benny Powell and Kai Winding among others. Those were lean years for jazz musicians given the rock onslaught.

Johnson’s versatility takes him from jazz to blues to rock, to literally whatever’s put in front of him to play, but listening through this two LP set originally issued in 1976 makes clear that he always does it tastefully. Here, he navigates a jazzy path, swaying gently, yet firmly through a variety of musical genres, producing a feathery, yet gritty tonality that skitters everywhere between Ben Webster and Lee Allen.

Johnson sound like a bopster one minute and a guy who’d be comfortable subbing for Clarence Clemmons the next. Backed by Ray Brown, Herb Ellis and other top west coast jazz musicians, Johnson leads the group through a crisply executed set of originals and standards including “A Cottage For Sale” and “My Foolish Heart.”

This is strictly a “session date” that skirts “smooth jazz” territory without ever stepping in it, and while it’s hardly the most challenging or intellectually nourishing jazz you can listen to, there are no empty calories either, aided by the Johnson’s joyful playing, the excellence of the supporting players and a skillful, commercial recording done at famed United/Western studios, which of course, later became Ocean Way, one of today’s great recording venues. You'll love the sound on this record, though it's heavily infected with that Fender/Rhodes keyboard sound so popular back then and less so now.

Side four concludes with “Parking Lot Blues,” a bonus track originally part of another Johnson LP, The Blues issued in 1976.