Larry Young - Unity
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Larry YoungBrand: YOUNG,LARRY
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1999-03-09
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Soundtracks:
- Zoltan
- Monk's Dream
- If
- The Moontrane
- Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
- Beyond All Limits
Free Music Notes for Unity
Free Music Review: A Perfect Album for so Many Reasons
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is one of the most satisfying jazz albums I've ever bought. First off, it's a treat to hear the organ in such an up-front and wide-open setting; usually when we hear a B-3's sweet tones it is merely tapping out some cute seventh chords in the background of a blues jam. Larry Young is as unrestricted as any jazz musician can sound within the bounds of a chord progression here, playing lines as melodic and purposeful as Freddie Hubbard or as emotional and forceful as Joe Henderson, who also plays in top form on the date in question, within the same solo, all the while holding down a solid bass line with his left hand so masterfully that many have been led in ignorance to think there is a bass player on the recording (there isn't). Woody Shaw, often hailed as one of the most underrated soloists in post-bop, shows his true talent here as well, placing his unorthodox yet fluid phrases in all of the tunes from his own 60's avant-garde flavored "Moontrane" to the very standard standard, "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise," all with the same level of energy and sheer emotion that is par for the course on this fantastic album. So, the soloing is great. Really great. Next order of business: Elvin Freaking Jones! Elvin passed away recently, and I'm sure many people are looking for his most characteristic and celebrated recordings to appreciate what a great talent he was and what an impact he had on jazz drumming and on jazz as a whole. Unity is as good a place to start as any. Though he was obviously most famous for his work in thepurpose-driven John Coltrane Quartet, he displayed hisunique polyrhythmically swinging style on a number of records as a sideman including this one and other perennials such as Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Sonny Rollins' Live at the Village Vanguard. It is a joy to hear him communicating with less familiar musicians with the same empathy as he did in the Coltrane quartet. His solos are fantastic as well, with his free, over-the-barline style which often displayed itself in open-ended solos turning up here inside the boundaries of extended form ("Monk's Dream") and in four bar phrases ("Zoltan"). Even within the restriction of specific solo lengths, Elvin plays with the same freedom and motive-oriented melodicism as always.
And last but not least: song selection. No Larry Young originals here, but three by Shaw and one by Henderson which are wonderful new (at the time) compositions that have become those type of "standards" that get played from time to time but aren't in the Real Book and don't exactly get called at wedding gigs. The very Monk-ish "Monk's Dream" is a Larry and Elvin duet here, a very good choice and a nice variation for the album's general flow. As said earlier, the standard "Softly..." is treated with the same improvisational attitude as the more modern tunes. Great selections.
Okay, if my bombastic ramblings communicate nothing else to you, please hear this last line: buy this album!
Unity Poster
The album that put Larry Young and Woody Shaw on the jazz map, this exciting and inventive session with Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones. Churning rhythms, challenging ground breaking compositions and brilliant solo work make this album a classic that exerted great, uncredited influence on the next generation of jazz artists. And one of the most requested Blue Note reissues!Recorded in 1965, in the afterglow of avant-garde jazz's first significant wave, Unity proved what organist Larry Young's Blue Note debut, Into Somethin', foreshadowed. Young had been a straightforward protégé of Jimmy Smith prior to his Blue Note years, and he later went full-tilt into fusion, eventually joining Tony Williams's Lifetime for their rightly named debut, Emergency. But here Young dug into an exploratory groove that fed in part off the Hammond B-3 tradition and in part off the pulse-oriented rhythmic developments then occupying Cecil Taylor and others. That said, the tunes are all keeled on even tempos, with thoughtful, tight soloing from Joe Henderson and a young Woody Shaw. With drummer Elvin Jones powering the quartet, the music cruises along, but Young's free-flying organ is the most striking point, with its fall-apart deconstructions and its architecturally complex solos and melody statements. More than anything, this recording helped clarify how relevant the B-3 was for the new breed of jazzers. This Rudy Van Gelder remaster improves the sound, both brightening it and bolstering the low end. Also added are a couple of great photos and a new liner essay. --Andrew Bartlett
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