Customer Reviews

Groovin With Jug

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of the scores and scores of recording dates Gene Ammons had notched on his belt, I believe only three of them were done on the West Coast; this was the first (the other two were made for Prestige in 1972-73). Half of this CD was made before a live audience at the Black Orchid in LA, the other half in a studio on the same day (August 15, 1961). It's actually a case of Gene guesting with the Black Orchid house band, which was Groove Holmes on organ, Gene Edwards on guitar, and Leroy Henderson on drums. The results are typical for Ammons: a bunch of blues, a slow ballad, a couple of real burners. The CD begins and ends with the blues taken up tempo: Holmes's GOOD VIBRATIONS is fiery while Gene's HEY YOU, WHAT'S THAT has an unusual staccato theme before smoothing out nicely. WILLOW WEEP FOR ME is the slow ballad - Gene is lush and sexy while Holmes produces a solo on organ that sounds almost like a marimba. The title track is a very catchy theme and swings mightily. Edwards is a fine guitarist out of the Wes Montgomery school and Henderson is a solid drummer. The album is a real gas and everyone performs well.

More than half of this CD is Live; the other 2 tracks being done the same day in the studio. The studio sound is better, no question, but Live is Live...and I like drummer Leroy Henderson a lot on the Live part. Much like Anders, who reviewed this below, I find the guitar to be a problem on both Live - where his 'gain' is up too much, and hence distorts his sound; and in the studio - where he is obviously out of tune. Playing ' Wes-style octave' leads when your guitar is out of tune (listen to "Morris The Minor") is bad enough; to allow that on to a recording is not good...Otherwise, Jug sounds great with Groove, especially in a Live setting. This is a straight-on groove CD.

It is two musicians with almost identical rhytm conception that plays together here..no wonder that is swings . It is not often that you hear a sax player of Gene Ammons calibre playing with an organ trio.I would describe the music as GROOVE & SWING not bebop and blues which is more common for organ quartets.
Groove Holmes does not use any overpowered leslie speaker here,,it is quite refreshing to hear.
From what I heard .. Groove mostly played his basslines with his left hand,and those lines are strong..The Blues "Hittin the Jug" is taken at breath taking speed and Grooves basslines pushed Ammons to some remarkable playing. The guitarplayer is Gene Edwards that occurs on many of Holmes recordings.. he plays very nice,,his comping is at the mark,, BUT his tone is ...well quite ugly..which is the only negative I can say about this recording.
In Germany this would be called GROOVENDER SWING