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.