Super rare and ultra wailin' organ/tenor ! ! !
Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 09/24/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You really don't get to hear stuff like this any more... Not only has the album been rare for years, labels have showed more of a bias towards the more modernistic organ/guitar Jimmy/Wes, Grant/Larry Young type sessions. This recording, however is very rare. Its uptown style party Hammond... played by guys who know how to swing with a capital S, groove with a capital G, can play Jazz with a capital S - - yet also understand how to play with the grit and grind of the best rock and roll and R&B of the era it was done... (The year was 1964, label Prestige.)
Featuring a rare tenor/organ/drum trio (very common at Jazz organ rooms back then, but for some reason hard to find on album) - - Eddie Chamblee wails his butt off... a featured Lionel Hampton soloist, the tenor player in AND GOD CREATED WOMEN... and although an Eddie Lockjaw/Illinois Jacquet blues infused barwalker type player, also able to bop out and play "groovy" yet off center and richly conceptualistic as well. (I think there's quite a bit of Johnny Griffin in his playing.) - - On this session however, he holds nothing back... he plays hot, he plays cool... and handles blues and ballads just as aptly. One minute buzz tone, other times ripping out bopped up phrasing in a classic Sonny Stitt like manner - - then there's the sudden Lenny Picket like shreiks of joy one minute... warm breathy sexy tenor the next. - - In addition he's backed by Dayton Selby on organ, capable as any Lou Donaldson organist, he also can play very rompy, swing like mad, and has one foot so far deep in church you wonder how someone can rip out sanctified praise music and be eatin' hot barbeque at the same time.
Last but not least, I should mention the drummer... Al Griffin who can also swing and rock out not only rhythmically, but with a high sense of drama and interplay... drop bombs bebop style, chikachinkachicnk hard and crisply on the cymbals as well as play uptown style and houserockin' backbeats with the best of them.
In the end, despite the formula being perfectly right (even a great album cover and recording by Rudy Van G) this session has remained rare, forgotten and out of print for way too long - - too rough, raw and cookin' for the weak of heart...
Tunes include a nice set of standards, blues, known and lesser known tunes... all good... from The Honeydripper, By bye Blackbird, Softly as I Leave You as well as some originals and more... 8 fantastic tunes... expect to get your money's worth for years to come... mark my word !"
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1