When I’m in the mood to listen to music, I usually turn to my
ever-growing pile of new music (I’m old fashioned enough that I’m still buying
CDs). It’s often out of guilt—why buy this stuff if I’m not going to play it?
This is bad, because it causes me to neglect the classics, like Larry Young’s Unity.
I’m not a Blue Note fetishist. Plenty of other labels
produced (and still produce) great music. I have to admit, though that Alfred
Lion maintained a pretty high standard overall. Unity is a classic example. I remembered how good it was, thanks both
to the quality of the musicians but also Blue Note’s penchant for extensive
rehearsals prior to making a recording. There was a lot I didn’t remember, though:
- Nat Hentoff’s liner note reminded me of how young Woody Shaw was—21 when he made this record! Not only is his trumpet playing astonishingly mature, but his compositions, particularly “Zoltan” and “The Moontrane” (now a jazz standard) are equally accomplished.
- “Zoltan” is named for Zoltan Kodaly, whose march from his Hary Janos Suite form the composition’s opening.
- Joe Henderson’s witty and apt quotations, like Charlie Parker’s Buzzy in his tenor solo on “If.” I don’t usually think of Joe as using quotations, but he does here.
- The great arrangement of “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” proving that the Great American Songbook is still a fine vehicle for jazz when treated imaginatively.
- The subtlety of Elvin Jones’s drumming, perhaps easier to hear in a non-Coltrane setting.
One thing I can never forget is Larry Young’s groundbreaking
playing. He was a real stylist, utterly distinctive. He moved the organ from
soul jazz into more adventuresome territory without losing his soul —and that
goes for his later, more fusion-oriented work with Tony Williams, too.
Here’s “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." I hope you enjoy it.
