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PATTERSON, ERVIN & PERSON
Just Friends (Prestige)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
This disc will bust your organ=soul jazz stereotypes wide open. Although Don Patterson plays with as much soul as you could hope for, both his style and his selection of material takes this out of the standard soul jazz category and steers a strong course for the bop bin. This installment in the Prestige Legends Of Acid Jazz series extends the standard two-fer format by offering tracks from four of Patterson's sessions from the sixties.
The disc opens with the 1967 release, Four Dimensions, featuring Patterson with guitarist Pat Martino, drummer Billy James and tenor saxophonist Houston Person. Although Person is in fine form, and shares billing on the cover, some of the best work here comes from Martino, whose experience included many organ combos, but who seemed to particularly relish the differences between Patterson's style and the standard funked up pop that typified the soul jazz style. There's no better example than the opening cut, the Gene Ammons' vehicle "Red Top," which includes an outstanding Martino solo and some impressive double time work by Patterson, a converted pianist who demonstrates his origins through his distinctive style on the Hammond.
The remainder of the disc is drawn from a 1964 session with Patterson, James and the Texas tenor of Booker Ervin. These tracks were ultimately spread over three albums, but they all came from the same date at the Van Gelder studio. Ervin is simply outstanding here, making his name on the cover a well earned honor, but it's still Patterson's session, and his blistering lines and be-bop approach are in the forefront.
If you think you've heard it all when it comes to organ jazz, and you haven't heard Don Patterson, you owe it to yourself to seek this one out.
Track List:
Red Top * Freddie Tooks, Jr. * Last Train From Overbrook * Embraceable You * Sandu * Sister Ruth * Donald Duck * Rosetta * Under The Boardwalk * Sentimental Journey * Theme For Dee * Just Friends
© 2000 - Shaun Dale