'!2G00BJ-Hbfheg! Strument Sing out on Its Glassy Top Register in the Shadow of Your Smile

Tobacco Road

Atlantic SD 1472 Brother Jack McDuff

personnel Brother Jack McDuff (org); Lonnie Simmons (bs); Red Holloway (ts); John Watson (tb); Fred Berry, King Kolax (tp); Bobby Christian (vib, perc); Roland Faulkner (g); Loyal J. Gresham (b); Robert Guthrie, Joe Dukes (dr); a.o.

tracks Teardrops From My Eyes; Tobacco Road; The Shadow Of Your Smile; Can't Get Satisfied; Blowin In The Wind; And The Angels Sing; This BItter Earth; Alexander's Ragtime Band; Wade In The Water

»Imitation, assimilation, innovation.« With these three words the great Clark Terry summed up the art of leaning musical improvisation. Salvador Dalí, the artist who melted time in his colourful and bizarre works, stated radically that a person who did- catalogue # n’t want to copy others would never manage to accomplish anything at all. Brother 1472 Jack McDuff did plenty of copying and refined the good old standards on his Tobacco Road and made them blossom anew. Jack taught himself to play the organ and went set contents 1 LP / gatefold sleeve on to transform the popular melody Alexander’s Ragtime Band into what one might call roughened up ball house jazz, were it not for the contrary saxophone, which soars pricecode over rasping organ clusters. For Brother Jack such spiritual sounds as in And The An- SC01 gels Sing and his somewhat slanted version of the musing, dreamy Wade In The Water release date were an absolute must. It really rocks in Can’t Get Satisfied, a gospel-like and delicately January 2019 instrumentalised version of the blues evergreen. The organ does not necessarily al- barcode ways have the last word in this colourful mixture, but it is always very present as re- gards the sound and the distribution of the parts. And just once does McDuff let the in- '!2G00BJ-hbfheg! strument sing out on its glassy top register in The Shadow Of Your Smile. original recording August 1966 at Chess Studios, Chicago »Imitate, assimilate, innovate«, so lautet der chronologische Dreischritt des großen original production Lew Futterman Clark Terry zur kunstvollen musikalischen Improvisation. Und Zeitverschmelzer und Farbenzeichner Salvador Dali befand radikal, dass ein jeder, der nichts nachahmen ratings (max. 5 stars) wolle, rein gar nichts schaffen werde. Brother Jack McDuff ahmte fleißig nach und ver- AllMusic: 4 Discogs: 4,15 RYM: 3,46 edelte die auf seiner Tobacco Road angebauten Standards zu neuer Blüte. Seinen an den Tasten selbst geschulten Hände verwandeln den Gassenhauer Alexanders Rag- time Band fast in aufgerauten Ballhouse Jazz, wäre da nicht ein widerborstiges Saxo- fon, das steil und über krächzenden Orgelclustern phrasiert. Pflicht und Kür bedeuten für Bruder Jack spirituelle Klänge wie And The Angels Sing und seine leicht angeschräg- te Version des gedankenversunkenen Wade In The Water. Richtig rockig geht es in Can’t Get Satisfied zu, einer gospelartig angelegten und fein durchinstrumentierten Fassung des Blues-Klassikers. In dieser bunten Mischung hat die Orgel nicht unbedingt das letzte, aber immer ein ge- wichtiges Wort bei Klang und Stimmgestaltung mitzureden. Und einmal lässt McDuff sie zu The Shadow Of Your Smile in den höchsten gläsernen Tönen des Registers sin- gen.