There are rare moments in life that one treasures. The evening when a certain person smiles at you from across a crowded room or you go into a pub and they have your favourite ale on draught or, you see the mailman heading for your front door carrying a slim 12" x 12" package.
You open the door ahead of him in case he tries to squeeze it through the letterbox, thank him profusely and then break your fingernails as you feverishly struggle to open it.
Those three scenarios don't always live up to expectations. That certain person may have actually been smiling at someone else, your favorite ale may have just gone off and the 12" x 12" package may have been an Elvis LP for the aging rockabilly living down the street.
Fortunately, on this occasion, Elvis lost out and the 12" x 12" package contained two superbly presented 180 gram vinyl records of which this is one (more on the other disc soon).
For some obscure (and inexplicable) reason I haven't listened to as much Blue Mitchell as I should have done. After several playings of this reissue (originally issued on the Mainstream label as either Blue Mitchell or Soul Junction in 1971) my aim in life is now to hear as much of his recorded work as I can lay my sweaty paws on.
His sound, like that of Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown, was as big as a 1960s' Lincoln Continental - most other modern trumpet players of the time were Citroën 2CVs by comparison! A Continental but with a Ferrari turn of speed.
Equally big sounding is Jimmy Forrest on tenor. If you heard Forrest with Al Grey at the Corner House all those years ago you'll know what I'm talking about. If you didn't then you have a treat in store!
Walter Bishop Jr. on piano provides solos that offer a contrast to the horns. A player who was always in demand by the top men, he shows his true worth here. Listening again - is that a Fender Rhodes he's playing?
Larry Gales and Doug Sides drive things along funkily making this an album that won't be gathering dust for the foreseeable future.
Apart from the music, the recording quality is superb, I would like to have been able to compare it with the original release which, incidentally, was produced by the legendary Bobby Shad, but, if I had been able to, my guess is that this New Land recording would win hands down. Sleeve notes are by Leonard Feather and there is also some inside info on the band from Sides, the drummer on the session - Lance
Release date August 26.
Soul Vintage; Blues For Thelma; Queen Bey; Are You Real?; Mi Hermano.
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