(Screenshots by Ken Drew).
A look back at a classic Blue Note album from 1965. Larry Young's Unity, beautifully recreated by Xhosa Cole and his fellow travellers. To say that I actually enjoyed this more than the original is by no means intended to be disrespectful to Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones and Larry Young. How could I be disrespectful to four of the all-time greats of modern jazz?!
And work on it they did. Byron has long been a trumpet player to be reckoned with whilst Xhosa and Noah seem to have been parachuted in fully formed from outer space! Jeff Williams - one of the heroes of the previous post - is himself approaching legendary status both in London and his native USA.
Zoltan set the stall out and, after Jeff's almost military-like drum intro Xhosa and Byron took off on the Lydian mode (I've done my homework) theme. This was good!
Monk's Dream is one of my favourites and, despite a missed cue going into the final head, tonight's guys did nothing to change that. Always good to know that even the Gods are human. If, Joe Henderson's only contribution to the original album, found willing recipients of his bounty tonight and it was a blast.
Xhosa took his role as frontman to step aside from Unity and feature himself on Wayne Shorter's Penelope, a rather lovely ballad. Nothing balladic about The Moontrane - a journey into space! Softly as in a Morning Sunrise is increasingly popular with today's young guns. Was this the album that sparked it off? One of the older guns - Jeff Williams didn't treat it softly but knocked seven shades out of it - Sigmund Romberg, a good six foot under, is still turning.
Beyond All Limits was the last track from the album but the final track of the set was another Monk tune - Played Twice. More kick-ass drumming from Jeff and a fantastic solo from Xhosa. How has he reached this level so relatively quickly? A man for the world stage. And, let's not forget Noah Stoneman who was Mr Unity himself!
Great set.
Lance
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