There are still good one to be found out there

After a lovely morning running around for my boss, and chasing down my medication that comes from a specialty pharmacist overnight because they did not change my address as promised. I needed to go to the record store. I ventured in a store that recently have wrote off yet I was in the neighborhood and in a foul mood anyway. They do have a new released section which is a nice thing if you don't go there that often(they don't file records that often there). I thumbed my way through Soul first with little to no luck. I then tackled jazz next. The largest section close tie to Rock. I saw many of the standards, and a few rarities. Sometimes the fill the racks with autographed, touched, and sneezed on copies and charge astronomical prices for them.

I had high hopes with 6 or so albums to listen to. A few decent but over priced including a copy of Lonnie Liston Smith's Cosmic Funk and a obscure copy of Monk Montgomery's( Wes's Oldest brother and bassist of the Mastersounds) Bass Odyssey. This album caught me but it was a little pricey. It was well done and something different. It was on Hugh Masakela's Chisa label, and was full of Crusaders. Joe Sample and keys, Wayne Henderson producing and playing drums , Stix Hooper playing some skins too. I had to pass at the 20+ price tag. The album I was excited to find was Johnny "Hammond"Smith's Soul Talk on Prestige. Although not his best the title track was worth every penny. It has the classic lineup of Smith on organ, Rusty bryant on sax, the little known but solid Wally Richardson on guitar, the unknown to to Bob Bushnell on Fender bass, and the immortal Bernard Purdie going to town on drums. Although not in perfect condition is was well worth the 10 bucks that took it home. I also picked up a copy of Red Clay for 5 dollars for my friend Walker's birthday which is another good album but not quite Straight Life from Freddie Hubbard on CTI.


My favorite Johnny "Hammond" Smith album that I own is Black Feeling!. Although critics say that Soul Talk is better, if you dig on the funky soul jazz Black Feeling is a better choice.

Recommendations

As society increases its fear of dirt and dependence on the mainstream, I dig deep in the crates for examples of Soul Jazz that might be over looked by others. I discovered the album by Blue Mitchell Blue Graffiti. This record ventures out of the soul jazz realm and lands more in the area of jazz-funk. 1973 was the period that soul jazz was approaching extinction and fusion was taking over. There is fusion on this record but it is far from what others were doing with jazz fusion in the day. The flavors on this record consist of blues, soul, jazz, funk, and all of that is covered with Blue's saucy brilliant trumpet. On Graffiti Blues he takes things to a level rarely achieved in the genre.
More than likely I thought to myself, I was first aware of Blue when exposed to Lou Donaldson's records of the late 60's. Those beautifully funky blends of his trumpet and Lou's alto are some of the defining factors of soul jazz for me. I realized the man is much thicker than that. Blue is soul jazz and was from the start. He is on albums by Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, also Stanley Turrentine.
The lineup on this album is not chalked full of the usual suspects. One you might of heard often would have to be Don Bailey playing a subtle harmonica. Don, as you might know, was Jimmy Smith's drummer for most of his Blue Note recordings from 1958-1964. The album also offers up Joe Sample on keys and you can hear a slight influence of that Jazz Crusaders sound on this record. The rest of the lineup is guitarist Freddie Robinson , electric bassist Darrell Clayborn and drummer Ray Pounds and tenor saxophonist Herman Riley. If you see this out there and like things funky with a touch of blues, check out this gem.