John Stein's Journey Down (Grant) Green Street

A blurb from Michael Cuscuna on the back of John Stein’s Green Street (Whaling City Sound), a reissue of a late nineties recording, notes that it acts as a homage to Grant Green, as well as the classic sixties’ organ jazz combo and the Rudy Van Gelder sound. While Stein’s album shares its title with one of Grant Green’s Blue Note discs, the title track is derived from the location of the 1359 Jazz Club that was home for Stein’s organ trio at the time and while Grant Green was an influence and inspiration on Stein, this disc is comprised mostly of Stein’s funky and bluesy originals backed by organist Ken Clark and drummer Dave Hurst with David ‘Fathead’ Newman adding sax and flute to five of the twelve tracks.

The mood is set with the opening Booga Lou, with Newman’s tenor the frosting on the danceable groove, while Hotcakes, has a bit of a movie soundtrack flavor with Newman’s flute alluding to Theme From the Pink Panther as Stein comps behind him. Jack’s Back is a jaunty blues which appears built on a riff from the Louis Jordan classic Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, and features some crisp playing from Stein, while Newman returns on tenor for the ballad, Our Love is Here to Stay, with Newman’s warm vibrato adding to the feeling and followed by some splendid playing from Stein.

Sultry features the trio again with a somewhat exotic, middle eastern flavor, before Newman returns for the title track, which sounds like a spinoff of Jimmy Smith’s Chicken Shack, with the tempo slowed down slightly. Newman is on alto sax for the Ellington classic, Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me, with Stein’s guitar responding to Newman’s statement of the theme, then taking a short chorus before Newman launches into his solo and later soloing some more. The last two tracks, Be Ooo Ba and You Stepped Out Of A Dream, featuring the trio, were from a live radio broadcast and further showcase Stein’s fleet, swinging and thoughtful playing along with that of his trio.

Stein has added his own thoughts along with Ed Hazell’s original liner notes to this marvelous release that is certain to delight fans of organ jazz trios and jazz guitar.

I believe I received a review copy from Jazz & Blues Report for whom this review was written, but not published. Here is a video of John Stein (not with organ).

Classic Ray Charles Live Recording Reissued With Unissued Tracks

Concord Records continues with its restoration of the post-Atlantic Records Ray Charles catalog with Live in Concert. The source for this was a September 1964 concert at Los Angeles’ Shrine Civic Auditorium and featured Charles and his band that included backing vocals by the Raeletts, Oliver Beener and Wallace Davenport amongst the trumpets; Julian Priester and James Herbert amongst the trombones; Keg Johnson, David ‘Fathead’ Newman, Bill Pearson, Hank Crawford, and Leroy Cooper on saxophones; Sonny Forriest on guitar; Edgar Willis on bass and Wilbert Hogan on drums. Charles had expanded from his legendary little big band to the full orchestra in 1961 and Quincy Jones had helped with providing arrangements from his big band book.

The performance here (about 70 minutes of music) was the first after a European and Japanese tour and was recorded by Wally Heider who was a pioneer in location recordings of the time. This release includes 7 previously unissued performances that were not included in the original 1964 album release, adding nearly a half hour of unissued performances including renditions of One Mint Julep, Georgia on My Mind, That Lucky Old Sun, In The Evening (When the Sun Goes Down), Busted, Two Ton Tessie, and My Baby (I Love Her, Yes I Do), to go along with such numbers associated with Charles as I Got a Woman, You Don’t Know Me, Hide Nor Hair, Hallelujah, I Love Her So, and What I’d Say.

Of course its a terrific band (Charles’ jazz piano chops are displayed on Swing a Little Taste) with Fathead and Hank Crawford getting solo space, and terrific section work and swing. And its nice to hear Charles at this stage as he was expanding his repertoire, but had not relegated many of his early R&B classics to brief treatment as part of a medley so we get strong renditions of I Got a Woman, Hallelujah, I Love Her So, Don’t Set Me Free, and What’d I Say, along with more recent additions to his repertoire as You Don’t Know Me, Margie, and Georgia On My Mind. And Ray still was front and center with the blues with the terrific In The Evening, and dig Charles’ terrific blues piano at the beginning. Material-wise, the only misstep is Two Ton Tessie, which was likely from some forgettable show, but Charles still puts everything into the performance.

Bill Dahl contributes his usual insights in the accompanying booklet and the sound quality is excellent. Live in Concert is an welcome addition to Ray Charles’ discography. There is some simply terrific music here, capturing “The Genius” at his prime.

My review copy was provided by Concord Records.