Testifying + Young Blues + Groove Street + Forrest Fire (4 LP on 2 CD)
  • New Jazz 8249
    New Jazz 8249
  • New Jazz 8264
    New Jazz 8264
  • Prestige 7237
    Prestige 7237
  • New Jazz 8250
    New Jazz 8250
  • Larry Young
    Larry Young

Larry Young

Testifying + Young Blues + Groove Street + Forrest Fire (4 LP on 2 CD)

Fresh Sound Records

Personnel:
Larry Young (org), Joe Holiday, Bill Leslie, Jimmy Forrest (ts), Thornel Schwartz (g), Wendell Marshall (b), Jimmie Smith (d)

Reference: FSRCD 871

Bar code: 8427328608718

 THIS PRODUCT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN THE U.S. 

Larry Young (1940-1979) started off in the early 60s as a soul-jazz organist, and the three albums included on this 2-CD setTestifying, Young Blues, and Street Groove, are his first as a leader.

Recorded in 1960 and 1962 for the New Jazz/Prestige label, they document a period when the 20 year old organist was starting to establish a name for himself in the jazz scene. On a set of warmly swinging, thoroughly grooving performances, Young is in an astounding, persuasively blues-tinged mood, while guitarist Thornel Schwartz and drummer Jimmie Smith are the personification of steady and sympathetic support, consistently augmented with the addition of bassist Wendell Marshall in Young Blues. Tenor saxophonist Joe Holiday can be heard on two of the tunes of Testifying, while Bill Leslie sets the right mood for Groove Street.

As a bonus, this set includes five tracks from Forrest Fire, another 1960 record date with Young and his trio act as backing for the solid blowing of the full-bodied tenor of Jimmy Forrest. These sessions, relaxed and unpretentious, are the epitome of swing-rooted, soulful jazz.



CD 1

01. Testifying 9:52
02. When I Grow Too Old to Dream
(Romberg-Hammerstein II) 5:15
03. Exercise for Chihuahuas (Joe Holiday) 7:35
04. Falling In Love with Love (Rodgers-Hart) 5:04
05. Some Thorny Blues 6:20
06. Wee Dot (J.J. Johnson) 7:04
07. Flamingo (Grouya-Anderson) 5:23
08. Young Blues 6:25
09. A Midnight Angel (Morris Bailey) 2:22
10. Little White Lies (Walter Donaldson) 4:12
11. Minor Dream (Ray Draper) 5:01
12. Something New, Something Blue 7:23
13. Nicas Dream (Horace Silver) 6:38

CD 2

01. African Blues 4:50
02. Groove Street 4:54
03. I Found a New Baby (Palmer-Williams) 5:25
04. Sweet Lorraine (Burwell-Parish) 9:25
05. Gettin Into It 14:24
06. Talkin Bout J.C. 5:56
07. Remember (Irving Berlin) 5:27
08. Dexters Deck (Dexter Gordon) 6:37
09. Jims Jams (Jimmy Forrest) 8:55
10. Bags Groove (Milt Jackson) 8:26
11. Help! (Doug Watkins) 4:50

Album details

All compositions by Larry Young except where indicated.

Sources:
CD 1 - Tracks #1-7, from the album
Testifying (New Jazz 8249)
CD 1 - Tracks #8-13, and CD 2 track #1 from
the album Young Blues (New Jazz 8264)
CD 2 - Tracks #2-6, from the album
Groove Street (Prestige 7237)
CD 2 - Tracks #7-11, from the album
Jimmy Forrest Forrest Fire (New Jazz 8250)

Personnel on "Testifying":

Joe Holiday, tenor sax on #3 & 7; Larry Young, organ; Thornel Schwartz, guitar; Jimmie Smith, drums.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on August 2, 1960

Personnel on "Young Blues":

Larry Young, organ; Thornel Schwartz, guitar; Wendell Marshall, bass; Jimmie Smith, drums.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on September 30, 1960

Personnel on "Groove Street":

Bill Leslie, tenor sax; Larry Young, organ; Thornel Schwartz , guitar; Jimmie Smith, drums.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on February 27, 1962

Personnel on "Forrest Fire":
Jimmy Forrest, tenor sax; Larry Young, organ; Thornel Schwartz, guitar; Jimmie Smith, drums; unknown, congas.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on August 9, 1960

Original recordings supervised by Esmond Edwards
Recording engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Design & photography: Esmond Edwards / Don Schlitten

This CD release produced by Jordi Pujol
Stereo · 24-Bit Digitally Remastered

Press reviews

"Before he became known as The John Coltrane of the B3 Larry Young was a groovemeister in the vein of Jimmy Smith. This 2-CD set from Fresh Sound Records have him with his working trio of Thornel Schwartz/g, Jimmie smith/dr as well as guests Wendell Marshall/b and Jimmy Forrest/ts in a toe tappers heaven from 1960-62.

Young and company preach like a Baptist minister on Testifying, bop like Diz on Wee Dot and sing like Pagliacci on Flamingo with Schwartz showing some sleek moves on Exercise for Chihuahuas. With Marshalls bass adding some oomph the team does some snappy work on Horace Silvers Nicas Dream and sound wonderfully mysterious on African Blues and Minor Dream. Bill Leslie adds his tenor sax and greases up on Getting Into It and Sweet Lorraine and Jimmy Forrest rolls in like the fog on Bags Groove and Dexter Deck. How can you not believe in an all wise God when the sound of the tenor sax and B3 can only be described as heaven sent? Goes down like Texas BBQ Brisket at Franklins."

George W. Harris (October 19, 2015)
http://www.jazzweekly.com

-----------------------------------------------

"On Testifying and When I Grow Too Old To Dream you can already hear Young squeezing together blues tonalities and exploring with the strange, whole-step intervals that became part of his fully mature language on the classic 1965 Unity and with Tony Williams' Lifetime.

These earlier sessions aren't just workmanlike organ trio jazz. Though Groove Street seems like a tactical withdrawal into commercial orthodoxy, the superb early sets are a good illustration of Young's attempt to replace the prevailing Jimmy Smith style with something of John Coltrane's new harmonic approach. It's not always successful but despite the youth of the group, with Schwartz the hardened veteran at 30 and an effective soloist, there's nothing gimmicky or overtly experimental. The drummer, just off a gig with B. B. King, is solid and assertive. Young himself played it the way he heard it, and even his most abstract tone clusters and odd switches between upper and lower manuals are functional and determined by musical need.

The saxophones generally contribute to a more conservative sound, but they're only sparingly deployed on the first CD. On Groove Street and the bonus Forrest Fire, which is the saxophonist's date, they're inevitably more prominent. The only moan is the totally unnecessary spill of a single track from Young Blues onto the second disc, leaving it so oversubscribed that one track (When Your Lover Has Gone) has had to be dropped from Forrest Fire. That's not a major loss in itself, but it slightly spoils the ending of Young Blues. It's not clear why Young chose to work with a bass player on that album but Marshall was a superb choice and allows Young to range more freely in his upper registers."

Brian Morton -Jazz Journal (September, 2015)

Price:

14,95 €  (tax incl.)

Add to wishlist

Added to your wishlist.

You can manage your wishlist here.

You're not signed in

You must sign in to manage your wishlist.
Sign in
Delivery information:
Delivery in 5-7 days
Shipping rates Terms and conditions
Payment methods:
Share:

 

 

Customer reviews

Write a review

Testifying + Young Blues + Groove Street + Forrest Fire (4 LP on 2 CD)
Rate this product:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Your review has been added and will be available once approved by a moderator.