Prestige

Don Patterson - Tune Up!

Don Patterson Tune Up! (Prestige 1964/1969)

- Francois Leave a comment

Tune Up! is one more example of a record company’s policy to keep an interest in the career of a musician when he or she is absent with no apparent return ticket attached; in this case Don Patterson, whose hard road of drug abuse at the end of the sixties had become strewn thick with heavy rocks and barbed wire.

Don Patterson - Tune Up!

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone A1-2), Sonny Stitt (tenor saxophone A2, B1), Houston Personn (tenor saxophone B2), George Coleman (tenor saxophone B2), Virgil Jones (trumpet B2), Grant Green (guitar B1), Billy James (drums A1-2, B1), Frankie Jones (B2)

Recorded

Recorded on July 10 & August 25, 1964 and June 2 & September 15, 1969 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7852 in 1969

Track listing

Side A:
Just Friends
Flying Home
Side B:
Tune Up
Blues For Mom


It didn’t affect his playing on the title track, this album’s most interesting cut, a leftover from a September ’69 session that spawned two high-standard releases – Brothers 4 and Donnybrook. It would be hard to follow up Grant Green’s amazing solo on Miles Davis’ fast-paced composition – Green (credited as Blue Grant) showing no loss of remarkable straight jazz skills during his burgeoning funk jazz period – were it not that Don Patterson rises to the occasion, not tempted to flex his muscles in bragadocious manner, but instead stringing one dynamic, coolly delivered bop run to another, like multiple toy beads.

It’s difficult to make head or tail out of an album that presents four tunes from four different sessions, ranging from ‘64 to ’69. This nevertheless belies the good quality of these sessions, what with the standing of Patterson and sidemen such as Stitt, Ervin, Coleman and Jones, who confidently blow their way through standards and blues.

YouTube: Tune Up

Red Holloway - Red Soul

Red Holloway Red Soul (Prestige 1965)

- Francois Leave a comment

Imagine side A of Rubber Soul being performed by the genuine Fab Four and side B as a new project of McCartney & Harrison supported by Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine. That would be a whole different ball game, right? Interesting, to say the least! Incoherent but fruitful, no doubt. Red Holloway’s Red Soul is a jazz equivalent of the ‘alternative’ Rubber Soul.

Red Holloway - Red Soul

Personnel

Red Holloway (tenor saxophone), Lonnie Smith (organ A1-5), George Benson (guitar), Chuck Rainey (electric bass A1-5), Paul Breslin (bass B1-4), Ray Lucas (drums A1-5), Frank Severino (drums B1-4)

Recorded

December 1965 in NYC

Released

as PR7473 in 1966

Track listing

Side A:
Making Tracks
Movin’ On
Good & Groovy
Get It Together
Big Fat Lady
Side B:
A Tear In My Heart
Eagle Jaws
I’m All Packed
The Regulars


It uses two differing line-ups and as a consequence lacks a unified atmosphere. It has to be said, however, that both groups deliver two solid ‘mini-albums’. The organ combo of side A concentrates on the blues, expertly so, and avoids dead end streets by adding some delicate touches to the compositions. Making Tracks, for example, makes use of a chromatic descent in the eleventh and twelfth bar, creating a welcome tension. There’s rhythmic variation as well, as the funky blues beat of Movin’ On and the break-filled theme of Good & Groovy demonstrate.

Red Holloway shows his capability to carry such tunes. He’d been sharpening his razors in Brother Jack McDuff’s group for two years and a half years prior to recording Red Soul; McDuff (and drummer Joe Dukes) really pushed sidemen such as Holloway to the groovy limit. On this occasion, the combo is not so fiery; it’s excellent, but their sound is thin. Its atmosphere is identical to Lonnie Smith’s debut album Finger Lickin’ Good, that had George Benson (who of course had also been with McDuff) aboard as well, who on Red Soul seemingly off the cuff hands out more than a handful of bluesy goodies.

Side B is jazz of a different band and nature; only Benson remained. Its sound and style is interchangeable to that of the late fifties. That doesn’t mean it’s a disappointment. It consists of uptempo, swinging tunes driven by Holloway’s hard-edged but fluent tenor, yet it’s the lone ballad, A Tear In My Heart, that is the session’s centrepiece. Bordering on a ‘cri de coeur’ played by a man accustomed to romantic bankruptcy, Holloway’s suave yet solid tenor work is heartfelt. Holloway was around as a freshman in the late fourties and it’s heartening to hear that musicians like him transported the beauty of swing to the next decades.

Both groups on Red Soul have a nice enough rapport. In the album’s liner notes Red Holloway put across his intention of showing two sides of the Holloway coin. It created a bit of a mixed bag, but one filled with satisfying efforts.

YouTube: Good And Groovy

Rusty Bryant - Soul Liberation

Rusty Bryant Soul Liberation (Prestige 1970)

- Francois 1 Comment

Rusty Bryant was the kind of big-toned saxophonist that switched easily between r&b and jazz. In the late sixties Bryant recorded in the funk jazz vein. With Soul Liberation Rusty Bryant arguably delivered the grooviest funk jazz set of his career.

Rusty Bryant - Soul Liberation

Personnel

Rusty Bryant (tenor saxophone), Virgil Jones (trumpet), Charles Earland (organ), Melvin Sparks (guitar), Idris Muhammad (drums)

Recorded

on June 15, 1970 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7798 in 1970

Track listing

Side A:
Cold Duck Time
The Ballad Of Oren-Bliss
Lou-Lou
Side B:
Soul Liberation
Freeze-Dried Soul


As the title track demonstrates, from the first lines Bryant grabs you by the throat and thence builds a heated solo, inspired by an equally fiery line-up. There’s Idris Muhammad. The steamroller! The funky wizard! The eloquent groovemaster! Competent in many facets of jazz, of course Muhammad is admired mostly for his groundbreaking soul jazz grooves. On this album Muhammad’s trademark press rolls ‘on the one’ are plentiful.

At the time, Muhammad mostly played with Lou Donaldson. Other Donaldson alumni are Earland and Sparks. Furthermore, all four sidemen played on Charles Earland’s masterful Black Talk. Thus they have some experience playing together and would continue to play on other recordings the following year. Charles Earland is a great organist but often demonstrates an unnerving form of bombast in this session, wasting powder and shot and leaving us wondering which solo climax is next. Yet the heavy ground beef he delivers for Rusty Bryant’s Big Wopper is wholly satisfactory.

Virgil Jones is an exciting trumpet player who shows an appetite for the exuberant blowing of Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Melvin Sparks’ gritty, r&b-influenced play, at times echo-reverberating quirkily, is also an asset for a party record such as Soul Liberation; to boot, in Lou-Lou – a Charles Earland original dedicated to Lou Donaldson – the second part of Spark’s straightforward, bluesy solo is preceded by whimsical, spiraling, Oriental turns. Very charming.

Rusty Bryant sets the pace with Eddie Harris’ Cold Duck Time, shouting brusquely and throwing in some flashy bop phrases as well. Apart from the impeccable Ballad Of Oren Bliss Bryant continues to blow hard. Try putting on this album during your bi-annual house party. It’ll simultanuously prompt people to tip-toe to your linoleum dance floor and have their ears perked up well enough to notice whoever on Soul Liberation is currently cookin’.

YouTube: Cold Duck Time

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Boogaloo Joe Jones No Way! (Prestige 1971)

- Francois Leave a comment

Look at that confident young man on the cover of No Way! Dressed in full funky regalia, caught in the action of playing a solid Gibson guitar, resolutely and in earnest. Boogaloo Joe Jones: sounds hip, dude. And the sleeve shows a man inclined to hit the big time. He wouldn’t, though. Boogaloo Joe Jones, sideman on a small number of soul jazz recordings, before disappearing into obscurity, nevertheless made a series of good albums for Prestige. No Way! is one of them.

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Personnel

Boogaloo Joe Jones (guitar), Grover Washington Jr. (tenor saxophone), Sonny Philips (organ, electric piano, A1 – A3, B2), Butch Cornell (organ, B1, B3), Jimmy Lewis (Fender bass), Bernard Purdie (drums)

Recorded

on November 23, 1970 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Released

as PR10004 in 1971

Track listing

Side A:
No Way!
If You Were Mine
Georgia On My Mind
Side B:
Sunshine Alley
I’ll Be There
Holdin’ Back


It shows an uncanny ability to inject the blues, which is the basis of his style, into a repertoire of wide range. It might take a listen or two to connect the party-hardy, viciously outgoing funk of the title track to the sweet and sour white boy’s blues of If You Were Mine – recorded earlier by Ray Charles who’d gone c&w himself. But then it clicks.

In the former, there might be the risk of being blown away by the steamrolling tandem of funk jazz drum wizard Bernard Purdie and electric bassist Jimmy Lewis – a spicy stew – but Boogaloe Joe Jones devours it with relish and throws in punchy lines and fast-fingered licks. Its continuous climactic impulses might might wear one down a bit, but No Way! certainly rocks. Jones also does pretty well in the latter, in which his ‘twangy’ sound and inflected imitiation of the human voice is paramount to its innocent, hum-along charm. If You Were Mine also features a resonant solo by Grover Washington Jr.

So here we have a hip-shaking and eloquent recording of funk, blues, pop and country, jazzed up by a guitar player who, by the way, supposedly was nicknamed Boogaloo chiefly to avoid confusion with the likes of Philly Joe Jones and Jo Jones. Keep good company is what my grandma always used to say.

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Don Patterson Satisfaction (Prestige 1965)

- Francois Leave a comment

Don Patterson operated within the classic organ combo format – a quartet consisting of organ, guitar, drums and saxophone. On Satisfaction the horn is left out. It’s not sorely missed. Patterson keeps things interesting in many areas: that of technical ability, harmonic coherence and, last but not least, that of the blues.

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Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Jerry Byrd (guitar), Billy James (drums)

Recorded

on July 19, 1965 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Released

as PR 7430

Track listing

Side A:
Bowl Full Of Yok
Goin’ To Meeting
Side B:
John Brown’s Body
Satisfaction
Walkin’


Patterson had been working with drummer Billy James for four years, notably as backing group for Sonny Stitt. They don’t dwell on matters and head into two uptempo blues shuffles, Bowl Full Of Yok and Goin’ To Meeting, commenting on each other’s phrases ebulliently. Patterson is a great storyteller and capable of stretching out to the limit. Bowl Full Of Yok’s many choruses never have a dull moment. After the theme is stated guitarist Jerry Byrd immediately grabs attention in dissonant vein and launches into a solid solo. Byrd flavors his personal style with touches of Charlie Christian and Pat Martino. In this session Byrd takes some interesting solo’s; his guitar sound is a bit distorted, which enlivens the down home-type proceedings.

Jagger/Richard’s Satisfaction has gotten a lighthearted, funky treatment. On John Brown’s Body – a marching song about an abolitionist in the American Civil War – the resemblance of Patterson’s play to the famous character that influenced him to take up the organ in the first place, Jimmy Smith, is most striking.

At the time, liner note writers more often than not referred to the schism that existed between stuffed shirts who detested the organ genre (and its popularity!) and aficionados that defended it as a worthy addition to the art of jazz. Bob Porter, who wrote on the back of Satisfaction’s sleeve, is no exception. The battle may seem absurd nowadays, as generally people finally got hip to it; I’m on the side of, as one might have expected, Bob Porter & Co. Naturally, it would be hard to deny that there have been more than enough mediocre organ sessions between 1955 and 1975. But Patterson didn’t partake in any of them; and Satisfaction is but one example that the jazz of the Hammond B3 could simultanously be entertaining, smart, soulful and inventive.

YouTube: Goin’ To Meetin’

Willis Jackson - Live! Action

Willis Jackson Live! Action (Prestige 1964/66)

- Francois Leave a comment

By the mid-sixties Willis “Gator” Jackson, who started out as a honker and shouter in the r&b field, had recorded prolifically on jazz label Prestige. Nevertheless, a burst of tenor madness always peeked around the corner. Live album Live! Action definitely brings to the fore Jackson’s trademark r&b riffing.

Willis Jackson - Live! Action

Personnel

Willis Jackson (tenor saxophone), Pat Azzara (Pat Martino, guitar), Carl Wilson (organ), Frank Robinson (trumpet), Joe Hadrick (drums)

Recorded

on March 21, 1964 at The Allegro, NYC

Released

as PR 7380 in 1966

Track listing

Side A:
Hello Dolly!
Annie Laurie
Blowin’ Like Hell
Blue Gator
Side B:
I’m A Fool To Want You
Gator Tail
Satin Doll


This is particularly noticable on Blowin’ Like Hell. Indeed, Jackson blows like hell! As if battling with Big Jay McNeely, keeping the honk up till kingdom come, sometimes extremely low in the register, creating a buzz that goes directly to the guts. It’s the kind of tune that breaks the bottles and the mirror behind the bar, has women screaming murder and frolically hiking up their skirts. The crowd we hear on Live! Action seems to react accordingly.

Willis Jackson had two good chart runners with Gator Tail and Blue Gator and they’re both included here, as well as a joyful rendition of Hello Dolly. A disposable version of Satin Doll, however, fails to pick up steam.

The group possesses an old-timey sense of swing and sound. The sound quality of the recording is rather poor, thus hard to digest. Luckily, there’s the added bonus of guitarist Pat Martino, (credited as Pat Azzara) whose crackerjack runs come in loud and clear. Early in his career, Martino already displays dazzling technique and pace, if not always the intention to classify stories into build-up and climax. As he would do many times in the future, Martino engages in playing octaves in Gator Tail in honor of his mentor Wes Montgomery.

Live! Action brings uncomplicated entertainment and is a design for a pleasant, toe-tappin’ night out. More than anything else, it is a happy gig.

YouTube: Live! Action

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Carmell Jones Jay Hawk Talk (Prestige 1965)

- Francois 2 Comments

At the time of recording his best solo effort, Jay Hawk Talk, trumpeter Carmell Jones was a member of Horace Silver’s group and as a consequence partook in creating Silver’s landmark recording Song For My Father. From that outfit he chose drummer Roger Humphries, whose solid beat underlines a splendid hard bop session.

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Personnel

Carmell Jones (trumpet), Jimmy Heath (tenor sax), Barry Harris (piano), George Tucker (bass), Roger Humphries (drums)

Recorded

on May 8, 1965 at RLA Sound Studio, NYC*

Released

as Prestige 7401 in 1965

Track listing

Side A:
Jay Hawk Talk
Willow Weep For Me
What Is This Thing Called Love
Side B:
Just In Time
Dance Of The Night Child
Beepdurple


Title track Jay Hawk Talk (penned by Jones, who hailed from Kansas, the Jayhawk State) is a stunner; an infectious vamp on par with such classics as Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder (featuring, incidentally, Barry Harris) or Herbie Hancocks Watermelon Man. Jones’ hard swinging, staccato lines set the tone and Barry Harris showcases the merit of spaciousness in blues soloing. Jimmy Heath is at the top of his form, stacking one energetic run upon another, squeaking and honking in Tranesque fashion.

Other selections include uptempo warhorse What’s This Thing Called Love and ballad Willow Weep For Me; it might best be described as ‘robust lyricism’. I would pick Dance Of The Night Child, one of three Jones originals on this album, as another stand out tune.

Carmell Jones is not a name that regularly popped up in lists of top trumpet players. Mildly disappointing; Jay Hawk Talk proves he could compete with the best of them.

• There is some confusion as to whether Jay Hawk Talk is recorded in either Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs in New Jersey or Richard Alderson’s RLA Sound Studio on West 65th Street, Manhattan in New York City.

Sometimes Van Gelder Studio, where the main part of Prestige’s catalogue is recorded, was unavailable; Prestige then habitually turned to, among others, RLA Sound Studio. Most sources credit Rudy van Gelder; on the record cover, however, it is stated that recordings took place at RLA. Therefore, Flophouse Magazine sticks to that version.

Update: Nov 18, 2021. See comment below by engineer Richard Alderson. Any jazz detective out there that is going to slice through the fog of history and correct the faulty crediting of the Prestige catalogue?

YouTube: Jay Hawk Talk