The Soulful Drums Of Joe Dukes With The Brother Jack McDuff Quartet (1964) (Reissue)

Joe Dukes, Red Holloway, George Benson and Jack McDuff, are the current Brother Jack McDuff quartet. Because of the increasing popularity of the group, Prestige has seen fit to give each of the sidemen an album of their own (Red Holloway’s is Cookin’ Together (Prestige 7325, George Benson’s is The New Boss Guitar of George Benson (Prestige 7310). The leaderships have not been assigned nominally. Each album is designed to specifically showcase the talents of the musician whose name it bears as leader.

Joe Dukes has been propelling McDuff groups for several years now. He is an exceptionally skillful and technically able drummer who is inclined toward the flash and the flare. He's a “showtime” drummer, and what’s in his bright “bag” is amply demonstrated in this recording, his first as a leader.

Holloway and Benson are strong players with conceptions, which while tirmly embedded in the R&B tradition. have not gone untouched by developments in jazz beyond that paint oi departure. Though both are preoccupied With the most iundamental aspects of the beat. they are also capable (Holloway in the tradtion of Gene Ammons) oi impassioned and imaginative solos.

Brother Jack McDutl is one of the more popular at the current Hammond organists. At the age at eighteen he bought a hook on how to play the piano and soon he was working With R&B groups in Chicago. He got his share oi gigs. but iound lite as a professional musician a continual economic trustration. and in 1956 he decided to quit the mu5ic busmess to manage his lather's dry cleaning store in Champagne, Illinois. He did not. however. abandon music entirely, and from time to time in the lollowmg year and a halt. He sat in or worked. With various groups in the Champagne area. One of these groups. whose leader was a pianist, needed a bass player, so McDufi tried his hand With it and quickly became so protioent a player of that instrument that he received numerous job oliers. He resisted them tor a while. then gave in and returned to Chicago where he played both the bass and the piano and also began to experiment with the organ. Tenor Saxophonist and Prestige recording artist Willis Jackson, passmg through Chicago and requiring the serwces oi an organist, persuaded McDuii to devote all his energies to the organ and McDult remained with Jackson as his organist for more than two years.

In 1960, McDuii formed his own group. He scuttled at first but he was determined to keep it together, By 1963, and With the aid oi his Prestige recordings. he had achieved a very large tollow» ing and trequent bookings in clubs across the country.

McDuff is an agile instrumentalist and that is, at course. Prerequisite to an ability to play the organ well The organist's physical coordination must, perhaps. be even more keen than that of the drummer. The Jazz-oriented organist needs not only to play chordal and (when in solo) melodic linesithe ordinary role oi the piano—
but. with a toot pedal. must simultaneously sustain the bass line as well. Though elementary. this is a function that requires a particular adroitness McDuM (possibly because of his earlier experience with the bass) carries the bass line exceptionally well.

The musrc these men make together is at the sort that is peculiar to the night lite ot HarlemrNew York Harlem. Chicago Harlem, East Texas Harlem . . . Its purpose is to entertain and it is to be danced to—not headAdancmg, but body‘dancmg. It won't lose anybody. The rhythms and the statement are very ba5ic. The music is about what it is lett lor the musicians and the audience to have, and to make use oi. and to celebrate. it's a music of orgasm and so. lor some people. it is insigniiicant and scarey and only heat. and to be ignored. But ii you can get with it, it can litt you.

All the numbers in this set are highlighted by Duke's drumwork. Souliul Drums and Moohah The DJ. (shouts and building heat) are Simple, nil-styled numbers, showcases tor Dukes. Moanin' Bench and Greasy Drums are in the funk-soul groove and. like Two Bass Hit and My Three Sons, ieature Wailing solos by Red Holloway These latter three tracks also include outstanding iirey work by Benson and McDuil, the organist coming on like a roaring big band behind Holloway on Two Bass Hit and. in a like manner. behind both Holloway and Benson on My Three Sons.

Notes: Robert Levin (June 1964)
Produced by Lew Futterman

- Источник оцифровки: автор новости (plastinka aka nickhome)
- Тип сохранности винила: NM-
- Проигрыватель: Victor QL-Y44F
- Картридж (звукосниматель): Goldring Elite
- Предварительный усилитель (фонокорректор): Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL
- АЦП: Tascam UH-7000 (ASIO 2.0)
- Обработка: без обработки
- Формат записи (Bit/kHz): 32 float/192