Blue Meets Red: Baltimore 1966

For many years, the Left Bank Jazz Society of Baltimore put on an astonishing array of jazz concerts featuring the top players in the country. Many of these shows were recorded, but their subsequent fate makes up a convoluted tale that need not detain us. Happily, over the years a number of the tapes have been released by various small labels. A few months ago, I  posted on one of those releases, featuring Freddie Hubbard and Jimmy Heath. I have a number of other Left Bank releases on my pile, including Blue Mitchell and Sonny Red: Baltimore 1966, the subject of today’s post,  courtesy of Uptown Records, an outstanding reissue label that always includes copious liner notes.

One of the things I love about these releases is the enthusiasm of the audiences. They obviously were knowledgeable about the music and liked to let the musicians know how they felt. This set is especially valuable because it documents some fine work by Sonny Red (aka Sylvester Kyner), tart-toned alto player who released a relatively small number of albums in his all-too-short career. His aggressive style contrasts with Blue Mitchell’s classic hard bop trumpet sound. John Hicks, whose piano work I need to delve into more deeply, is consistently excellent, and it’s nice to hear Joe Chambers on drums in a more mainstream context. Bassist Gene Taylor, like Mitchell, was fresh from a lengthy stint in Horace Silver’s classic band.

The repertoire mostly consists of standards like If I Should Lose You, Portrait of Jenny, and I Can’t Get Started (the latter featuring Red, even though it’s often a showpiece for trumpeters), along with Mitchell’s infectious Fungi Mama, Jimmy Heath’s All Members, and Blue Spring Variation, a semi-clone of a Kenny Dorham composition. If you like mid-Sixties hard bop, you need this album!

Here are Blue Spring Variation and I Can't Get Started.