Richard "Groove" Holmes: Oh, Yeah!

Back in the day, jazz critics used to bemoan the proliferation of organ combo albums. I suppose they felt that this kind of stuff crowded out more “serious” music. These days, such recordings are classic reminders of a time when people crowded the downtown and uptown clubs, drank, listened, and had a good time. On Basie’s Bandstand is as good a way as any to recreate those Elysian days when jazz was fun, not “art.”

 Richard “Groove” Holmes was a popular and prolifically recorded artist in the 1960s through 1990s. He also seems to have had a classic up-by- his-bootstraps life while remaining a nice guy, as this  obituary indicates.

On Basie’s Bandstand was, as the title indicates, recorded live at Count Basie’s Lounge in Harlem in 1966. Some of that night’s work was released, but these tracks sat in the can until being released on CD in 2003. Maybe it’s because most of them were jazz standards like Bobby Timmons’s  Moanin’ and This Here, and Horace Silver’s Nica’s Dream rather than more R&B-related material..  Maybe it’s because the whole record is short on mellow.  It’s a high-octane burner, during which Groove pulls out all of the stops, aided by Gene Edwards on guitar and George Randall on drums. I’ll concede that some of his solos are over-the-top flashy, but I like over-the-top flashy.  I picture myself as they guy who keeps yelling “Oh, yeah!” at the end of This Here.  So grab a beer (or two) and come on along for the ride.