Larry Young was labeled “The John Coltrane of the B3” during his career, as he freed up the organ from being a soul groove machine to more complex modal sound and grooves. This very important 2 cd set from Resonance Records finds Young in Paris, with these studio and concert tapes discovered in the Office of French Radio and Television Archives, being presented here for the first time. To say that they are an illumination of modal jazz at its apotheosis would be an understatement.
Put in context, these tapes find Young between two classic albums, his Into Something in 1964 and Unity from the end of 1965. There are essentially three bands consisered here, one of Young with Nathan Davis/ts, Woody Shaw/tp and Billy Brooks, one with Young mixing and matching with Franco Manzecchi/dr, Jacky Bamboo/cong and Jacques B Hess/b, and an Jazz au Champs-Elysees All Star team with the addition of Sonny Grey/tp, Jean –Claude Fohrenbach and Jack Dievalp/ into the mix. The music ranges from wonderfully wild and frenetic Blue Note sounds to cozy late night suppertime romance.
The ORTF studio all star sessions include a stampeding caravan on “Talking’ About JC” with Young pulling the plugs, as Shaw and Grey are searing through the volcanic mix, while a 16 minute “La Valse Grise” percolates for Davis’s Coltranesque tenor. A concert “Black Nile” and “Zoltan” has Shaw punching out the ozone layer while Young’s Leslie speakers burst at the seams. Billy Brooks’ drums are as crisp as snow peas on the latter while in the ORTF Studios on “Trane Of Thought” he shows his inner Elvin Jones riding Davis like the wagon train on Rawhide.
A couple mellow pieces have Young oozing out “Mean To Me” and “Luny Tune,” but nothing prepares the listener for the closing piece; it’s a ringer, as Young switches to piano, and has a touch and attack exactly as if Theolonious Monk had expanded his horizons a bit with a fascinating trio piece on “Larry’s Blues.” Guaranteed that this one will stump everyone on a Blindfold Test, and it’s a one time affair that a) you wish would have been repeated and b) are glad you at least have this one copy of.
The 2 disc set includes a sumptuous book with copious essays by the likes of John McLaughlin, Bill Laswell, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Larry Young III along with some hip photos from the archives of Francis Wolff and others. Another great find by the Archimedes of jazz recordings with the third “Eureka” product of the year. So far.
Resonance Records