Reuben Wilson: Blue Mode – 1969

1969 was the grooviest year in a very groovy decade. The Beatles, on the verge of a breakup, urged everyone to get back and come together. The Temptations couldn’t get next to you. And Sly Stone took everyone higher at Woodstock.

At that very moment, in the waning days of 1969, Reuben Wilson funked us up with a classic acid-jazz album called Blue Mode.

If you remember 1969, you already know what Blue Mode sounds like, even if you’ve never heard a lick of it. This is an album created by someone who was definitely listening to James Brown and Otis Redding, with side orders of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff.

More pop than jazz, more funk than bop, Blue Mode catches the Sly Stone vibe. Higher, indeed.

Granted, organ jazz is an acquired taste. Some never get it. Early Jimmy Smith sounds positively weird, if you’re not already tuned to the vibe. Eventually, Smith got the blues bug and created classics with some fantastic guitarists and saxmen.

This is something different – a mashup of Chicken Shack blues and pop-funk Booker T and the MG’s. The quartet – Wilson on organ, John Manning on tenor, Melvin Sparks on guitar and Tommy Derrick – swing like crazy. The album is part of Blue Note’s Rare Grooves series, which gives you some idea where it fits in the label’s storied history.

This band would have fit in perfectly at Woodstock, maybe right before Santana.

Every song features a catchy riff and playful solos. The first two tracks are pure party tunes: Sparks’ “Bambu” and a take on Eddie Floyd’s 1966 hit “Knock on Wood.” Later songs include a slow blues (“Bus Ride”) and a few hard-edged, wailing sax solos that definitely borrow from Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and John Coltrane. We don’t hear Sparks’ guitar enough, but when we do, it’s rockin’.

Blue Mode is classic Blue Note on its last legs. In the ‘50s, the label was home to the best hard bop ever made. In the ‘60s, it birthed soul-jazz. And as the ‘60s slid into the ‘70s, just before the old Blue Note died, it was a swirling nest of acid jazz.

If you like your jazz with funk verging on rock, Reuben Wilson and Blue Mode are for you. They are certifiably groovy.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Not hard to find, but not plentiful either

Cost: $10 used, $17 new

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder — 1964

What’s left to say about Lee Morgan’s most popular album, The Sidewinder? How about this: It is one FUN record. That’s capital F, capital U, capital N.

Anything wrong with that?

Sometimes it feels like all the fun has gone out of jazz. As if nothing can be Good unless it is Serious. As if muted Miles and spiritual Trane are the ultimate barometers of true jazz respectability. Hey, I love Miles and Trane and all the great, serious musicians who came before and since. But there is also room for music that simply makes you smile, tap your feet and shimmy your hips.

The Sidewinder is that record. In spades.

There’s the title cut, of course – 10 minutes of pure, unadulterated riff and groove. Who doesn’t love a great riff? The Beatles played great riffs. Jimi Hendrix played great riffs. Hell, Beethoven’s Fifth is arguably the greatest riff of all time. So to say “The Sidewinder” is just a lot of fun variations on a great soul-jazz riff is not to damn with faint praise. It’s a compliment.

The remaining four cuts (and one alternate take) are not quite as riffy, and definitely not in the same soul-jazz mode, but still a hell of a lot of fun.

Every track is upbeat and lively. Every track is clever and brash. And every track was written by Morgan himself – what a great composer! Morgan on trumpet and Joe Henderson on tenor are simply inspired. They can twist a tune every which way and make it sound original. Barry Harris on piano reminds me of Ramsey Lewis on “The In Crowd,” especially on the title cut. Not a huge surprise, since “The In Crowd” came out the same year, infected by the same Fun vibe.

Yes, Lee Morgan played Serious hard bop for many years before The Sidewinder. They are pretty great records, too, especially the ones with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. You can love Serious and Fun equally. I do. That dichotomy goes back as far as jazz itself. There was Serious Louis Armstrong and Fun Louis Armstrong – sometimes on the same record, and all of it sublime.

So yes, The Sidewinder is on the Fun side of jazz. But it is virtuoso fun, and head-nodding fun. It is the jazz equivalent of comfort food – but gourmet comfort food. Morgan spent years trying to recapture the magic and never quite got it. The Sidewinder is fun before it became mere formula. Get it.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Oodles and oodles of copies out there

Cost:  $9 new, $4 used, $5 for just the MP3s

Freddie Redd: Music from The Connection – 1960

What sweet music from what sounds like a perfectly harrowing stage play!

Freddie Redd is one of those long-forgotten names in Blue Note history. He was a piano player in the bebop tradition of Bud Powell, with a tinge of Thelonious Monk. He recorded exactly two albums as a Blue Note leader, a few more as a session man, then disappeared for a number of years.

And yet, based on the evidence of Music from The Connection, Redd was a pretty swinging cat.

Blue Note, of course, never trafficked in soundtracks from movies or Broadway, and this isn’t exactly a soundtrack. The Connection was a play about jazz musicians and junkies. In the end, the main character dies of a drug overdose. Not exactly The Sound of Music. More like West Side Story meets Charlie Parker.

The music is not so much songs – there are no vocals – as quartet music played by the actors/musicians themselves as part of the show. For such a serious play, the music is actually quite melodic and playful. Much of it is standard hard bop, but the tone is mostly light and even upbeat.

Jackie McLean on alto sax runs away with most of the best lines. His playing is surprisingly light and breezy. Stage directions from the original play tell the musicians to play “in the tradition of Charlie Parker.” Many McLean phrases do indeed sound like Bird, but even more do not.

Redd has his own moments. He is clearly gifted as both a composer and player. Sometimes jaunty, sometimes lightning fast, Redd’s piano is always swinging. The surprise, at least for me, is drummer Larry Richie, a virtual unknown who channels Art Blakey in many places. I’d like to hear more – but apparently he didn’t record much. Bassist Michael Mattos solidly drives the bottom.

All in all, Music from The Connection is a delightful record. And that’s not something you can say of most shows that deal with inner-city drug addiction.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Not hard to find

Cost: $7 as MP3’s, $9 for a used CD, $12 for a new CD

Hank Mobley: Soul Station – 1960

Hank Mobley is a mystery to me.

On the one hand, I mostly love his relaxed style of bop. Sometimes it’s round and smooth, sometimes rock hard, sometimes full of soul and funk. What’s not to like?

On the other hand, the same relaxed style can sometimes seem lazy. Critics sure thought so. At his peak in the 1950s and ‘60s, Mobley was pretty widely ignored by critics. His playing seemed effortless and lacking innovation. At a time when John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins were setting the world on fire, Mobley seemed pretty tame.

Finally, Mobley was ridiculously prolific. Over a 10-year span, from 1955 to ’65, he recorded 23 albums as a leader, nearly all for Blue Note. He was also a sideman on dozens of other records led by the biggest names in jazz. Is it possible for a musician to be over-recorded? Hank Mobley was.

And yet, if there is much Mobley to hear, there is also much Mobley to love. Soul Station is arguably the most lovable.

This is hard bop at its best. Blue produced lots of hard bop gems, and Soul Station ranks among the tops. It starts with a first-rate band: Mobley on tenor, Wynton Kelly on piano, Art Blakey on drums and Paul Chambers on bass. This is a quintessential Blue Note bop quartet.

Soul Station throws the spotlight on Mobley in a way that other albums didn’t. For starters, he is the only horn in the band, so he’s not sharing the stage with a trumpet, as he often did. Instead, almost entirely Mobley and Kelly, trading toe-tapping solos.

Second, Soul Station is a showcase for Mobley’s songwriting talents. Four of the six cuts are Mobley originals. All are infectious. “This I Dig of You” is standard, hard-charging bop. “Dig Dis” is all smoke and noir and blues. “Split Feelin’s” starts with a Latin-ish beat, switches to standard bop, then back again. It’s clever and catchy. Finally, the title cut, as the title implies, is a relaxed blues full of soul. The remaining numbers are standards.

Critics may have slighted Mobley, but he’s a favorite among modern Blue Note fans. No wonder. In a ‘50s-60s roster that included lots of soulful and bluesy performers, Mobley may have been the bluesiest and soulfulest of all.

From 1957 to 1961, Mobley had an incredible run of eight or nine fantastic hard bop gems. All are terrific, but to my ears, Soul Station is the shiniest of them all.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Easy to find

Cost: Just $3 used on Amazon