Brother Jack McDuff - I Got A Woman (1969)

“Organ as Percussion” wouldn't have been an inappropriate title to describe this or any Brother Jack McDuff album. Whether leading or comping, wailing a solo or quietly filling in behind another musician's solo, Brother Jack has that percussive touch that is his trademark. His leads slice through the sonorous fabric woven by his sidemen like a glowing sword going through a curtain. His comping often sounds like what a great conga drummer might sound like if his drums were tuned to definite pitch-intervals. His solos exhibit an attack like those of great vibes men like Hamp. And even his softest fills are as suggestive of a sensitive drummer whispering along on the brushes, as of anything classed as a wind instrument. This whole organ style goes back of course to Jimmy Smith, and before that to the daddy of the modern jazz organ, Wild Bill Davis. But, as this and other albums have abundantly demonstrated, McDuff has developed a distinctive sound of his own.

Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, III., 42 years ago, Brother Jack has been swinging for most of that time. Like the majority of well known musicians of his generation, he is self-taught, and is at home on all the keyboard instruments (dig him on English Country Gardens, where he comes across in high style on celeste and piano) as well as the string bass; he also composes —two of the tracks on this album are his.

Straight-ahead swinging jazz and wailing blues are Jack’s bag. The cats he has chosen to work with, and who have chosen him, from way back when he wasn’t a “name” cat himself, tell the story to those who know: Willis (“Gator”) Jackson, Sonny Stitt, Yusef Lateef, Gene Ammons, Roland Kirk.

Jack did get some orthodox musical schooling as well, later on in his career, on the theory that everything you know helps.

Tenor-sax man Red Holloway hails from a little town in Arkansas, studied at Chicago Conservatory (his family were musicians), and has worked with bottom-blues singer Roosevelt Sykes, jazzmen Gene Wright, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, organist Bill Doggett, as well as the long tenure with McDuff; and he has recorded with at least half a dozen celebrated r&b groups.

Harold Ousley, another fine tenor man, from Chicago, has been around "The Apple” for about 10 years and has worked and/or recorded with Benny Green, Machito, Howard McGhee, Joe Newman, and Clark Terry, in addition to several gigs with Brother Jack McDuff.

Philadelphian Pat Martino is one of the most active and most talented of the younger generation of jazz guitarists. Pat, at 25, has already recorded for Prestige under his own name. Listen to Strings! (PR 7547), East! (PR 7562) and Baiyina (PR 7589). He can also be heard on many Prestige albums by McDuff, “Groove” Holmes, Trudy Pitts, Charles McPherson, Don Patterson and Eric Kloss.

George Benson has been playing for money since the age of 8, when he worked the streets of his native Pittsburgh with a ukelele and then, a year later, did a song-and-dance turn in a local after-hours club. In 1962 he joined McDuff as a regular on guitar, and in 1965 went out on his own to become one of the most important guitarists of the 60's.

Joe Dukes has been with Brother Jack McDuff, both “live” and on records, for some time now. His swinging, clean, driving, don’t-quit-now style has become an integral component of the McDuff sound.

Nancy Hamilton’s deathless How High The Moon, takes off like the Batmobile, for a sizzling up-tempo ride. Brother Jack’s melody lead is followed by a biting tenor
duet in the bop tradition, alternating with organ “fours”; then Harold Ousley blows a driving solo, with Pat Martino taking over. Red Holloway is next, and after that it's McDuff all the way, including two jumping choruses devoted to eight-bar exchanges with Joe Dukes. The tenor duet comes in again to take the tune out.

English Country Gardens opens with the woodwind choir of Benny Golson’s aggregation doing the classical counterpoint, complete with oboe obbligato, an appropriate springboard for the ringing, swinging celesting of the star performer, who quickly switches to dirty jazz piano with the big band comping behind him; in fact this whole track is a kind of keyboard concerto in miniature, relieved only by Red Holloway's tenor solo.

Spoonin’ is a McDuff original, a salty, funky, traditional 12-bar blues—except that the bars are 6/8 time, not alia breve or straight 4/4. Red Holloway is great here, wailing his ass off for half a dozen choruses, at the end of which the organ again emerges with irresistible effect, and the two of them fight it out for another 5; the last of these, pure McDuff, is one of the meanest and dirtiest renderings of the blues you ever heard in any tempo.

Ray Charles' modern r&b standard and the title tune, I Got A Woman gets a headlong, up-tempo ride here for 8V2 seething minutes. Benson, a much more blues-oriented, tar-and-turpentine guitarist than Martino, turns in a real low-and-nasty on this one, with incomparable comping from McDuff and relentlessly propulsive drumming from Dukes, for another 5 choruses. This launches a hypnotic, 200-bar sequence designed to showcase Joe Dukes' extraordinary and infinitely varied shuffle-beat drumming, virtually a solo with organ and guitar accompaniment. Dig it! Ray Charles should be proud.

Twelve Inches Wide is another McDuff blues; the minor, off-chord bop theme is first heard for two choruses of mingled unison and harmonizing; then Red Holloway leaps out for a couple of refrains in the avant garde “free” style, doubling and quadrupling the tempo; George Benson then does much the same kind of stunt on guitar; and McDuff and Dukes too get into the frantic bag, with all of them participating in the wild ending.

A “must” for McDuff enthusiasts, and a worthy introduction to Brother Jack for new listeners.

Notes: Ralph Berton (March 1969)
Produced by Lew Futterman A
Concert House Production

- Источник оцифровки: автор новости (plastinka aka nickhome)
- Тип сохранности винила: VG
- 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