Customer Reviews

Heavy Soul

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

 

 

This album is proof that Quebec was about to move back to successfully resume a career that had previously been badly affected by his narcotic intake. He'd already appeared on sessions by Jimmy Smith. Duke Pearson & Sonny Clarke in the early 60's and "Heavy Soul" was the first of four albums under his own name, that he was to produce for Blue Note before his untimely death in early 1963.Quebec's tone and breathing make his playing very distinctive and it's heard to great effect on this album where the group also allow him space to express himself. Listeners looking for a place to start might listen to the reading of "Nature Boy" where he's accompanied only by Milt Hinton on bass. Of the up tempo tracks 'Acquitted' and the bonus track 'Blues for Ike' are a great showcase for the ensemble, with Roach in particular knowing when to sit back, and when to insinuate himself into the mix.Of the slower track the two outstanding ones for me are 'The Man I love' and "Just one more chance" both of which also show the understanding between Hinton and Quebec, both of whom had served time with the Cab Calloway Band.Al Harewood who plays drums throughout can be propelling when needed, but he also sits in well on the slower numbers. As ever it's to be hoped that, having re-released "Soul Samba" that Blue Note would get around to re-releasing "It might as well be spring' with the same personel and perhaps some more out-takes from the sessions. However, as with all Blue Note reissues the advice remains the same, "Buy it now before they delete it!"

The recent batch of Blue Note RVG releases will make many a jazz fan salivate as several extremely hard to find, previously out-of-print CDs are being made readily available once more. This particular title was not one of the rarest, as its first CD incarnation in the Connoisseur Series was issued in the late 90s, but it is delightful to have back nonetheless. Ike Quebec's "Heavy Soul" lives up to its title. But this album is not heavy on up-tempo soul jazz, instead it's heavy on soulful ballads. There are some faster numbers, the Quebec penned "Acquited" and "Que's Dilemma," but it is the slower, sultry standards that set this disc's romantic tone. While I'm generally not a jazz organ fan (unless it's Larry Young or Jimmy Smith), Freddie Roach's playing is refreshingly light, and is spacious enough to allow bassist Milt Hinton room to make his own contributions. (If you look carefully most jazz albums with organ don't use bassists because the sound would get too muddy at the low-end.) While "Heavy Soul" is a rung below "Blue And Sentimental," fans of Ike and organ jazz will love this re-release.

Sometimes it happens to me to think about what kind of gems common people is missing without even knowing. Or better without being able to appreciate them because they don't have the tools, the informations to understand. Listening to this album from Ike Quebec, recorded in 1961, I find myself thinking .."what an era of mediocrity for the arts is the one we're living". People is completly unaware of the magic things has been done in the past. Done in years a lot more important than the ones we're living for the arts, so they take for good, stuff that simply has no value at all. So they piss away their money buying stuff of no artistic significance ... and think that with the same money (or even less) they could buy something of sheer beauty like "Heavy Soul" from Ike Quebec. Or even worst, they Judge this music we love, Jazz, as old, dated, untrendy .. when its beauty is simply ETERNAL. This album from Ike is one of the famous four Blue Notes of his comeback of the sixties. It is an organ album with his tenor as the main voice. Ike was really great we have to say this. He is even underrated among Jazz fans. He was one of the best for ballads and a solid blues infected musician for more fast tunes. The most evident thing is the beauty of his tone with the tenor which is amazing, really superb. His phrasing is eloquent, not simple and not complicated. Just right. The line up is Ike, Freddie Roach at the organ, Milt Hinton double bass, Al Harewood drums. I have to correct the previous reviewer who said that generally they didn't use a bass palyer with the organ because they didn't want an abundance of bass frequencies. It's nothing like that. It is simply because organ players do play bass parts with their feet! So they are bass players themselves! Why having another? Here Roach obviously didn't play the bass pedals and left to Milt Hinton the bassist role. This is the reason. When there's an organist a lot of times there are not abass player because the organ has a pedalboard for the bass lines and the organist do them with the feet. This album is exceptional. And when ballads time comes (there are some here) Ike simply "clean the scene". Musthave.

This was the first Ike Quebec album I ever listened to and the sheer strenght of the man's tone pulled me in from the first note to the last. I would even go so far as to say that of all the big toned tenors (Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, Gene Ammons, etc.) Ike was the greatest, not solely because of the deep-spit-soaked-sound he could coax from his sax, but also for the wealth of ideas he had and the emotion which was always present. I've gotten everything else by Ike that I could find (including the wonderful "easy living")and I can say with out hesitation that Ike never put out an inferior product. Quite simply you can't go wrong with a blue note Quebec album.

One of the few albums Ike Quebec ever recorded, Heavy Soul is the first effort in what would prove to be a busy period in the Blue Note studios in the early 1960's. His big comeback was sadly halted by his untimely death in 1963. The sound Quebec produces on the tenor has to be heard to be believed : he's absolutely unique, i.e. doesn't sound like any other tenor saxophonist. He's definitely in the big league, adopting the style of Coleman Hawkins as opposed to the softer sounds of Lester Young. Organist Freddie Roach could have been an ideal partner for Quebec's bluesy sound, but he appears somewhat bleak compared to Quebec. Perhaps not the ideal partnership after all. Quebec gorgeous sound comes to full fruition on the track "Nature Boy", which is a duet with bassist Milt Hinton. On this tune, Quebec shows once and for all what an absolute master he really was ! This track alone is worth the price of the album ! If five stars is the maximum rating, I give this CD six stars. Check out all his other albums too ! Once you discover this man's uniquely beautiful sound, you'll never imagine your life without it !

Ike Quebec's "Heavy Soul" lives up to its title. But this album is not heavy on up-tempo soul jazz, instead it's heavy on soulful ballads. There are some faster numbers, the Quebec penned "Acquited" and "Que's Dilemma," but it is the slower, sultry standards that set this disc's romantic tone. While I'm generally not a jazz organ fan (unless it's Larry Young or Jimmy Smith), Freddie Roach's playing is refreshingly light, and is spacious enough to allow bassist Milt Hinton room to make his own contributions. (If you look carefully most jazz albums with organ don't use bassists because the sound would get too muddy at the low-end.) While "Heavy Soul" is a rung below "Blue And Sentimental," fans of Ike and organ jazz will love this release.

The first of five outstanding albums tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec recorded for Blue Note during 1961 and '62, HEAVY SOUL set the highly impressive pattern for all of them: an inspired mix of catchy originals and reworked classics, all given nonpareil treatment by the awesomely big-toned leader and a small, pianoless team of sidemen - in this case organist Freddie Roach, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Al Harewood. The slow, sinewy grooves of the title track and "Nature Boy" (which manages to be every bit as bold and dramatic in its 2:41 as John Coltrane's far longer and louder 1965 version) work gorgeously alongside the aching melancholy of the ballads, themselves offset to full advantage by more uptempo pieces like the opening "Acquitted" and "Que's Blues." This is a top-tier session on all levels, and would certainly get five stars were it not for the fact that this same quartet recorded the comparably voluptuous IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING just a few days later. Since the casual listener would probably be satisfied with just one of these two truly excellent sets, I've given each a four-star - well, four-and-a- half-star - rating and leave it up to you to decide. Enjoy doing so!

When Dexter Gordon finally got out of the big house in the late fifties it was Ike Quebec who, as Blue Note's new talent scout, helped steer him back into the studio to record what would be his magisterial stack of '60's Blue Note albums.

More or less parallel to that development, Quebec himself would start laying down his momentous comeback contribution of Blue Note recordings and the Heavy Soul session is the most powerful date.

Recruiting his old buddy from the Cab Calloway days (bassist Milt Hinton and Ike would play through different progressions up on the roof during break times), we get the full dividend of that relationship on the title track and in `Nature Boy,' where they produce some of the most beautifully haunting music in all jazz.

`Acquitted' is a Quebec original with a wonderful spring in its step, his opening phrase oozing effortless mastery that sets the tone for the whole disk. Like Howard McGhee, Ike surveyed the scene in the late fifties after disappearing off the recording radar for most of that decade and was quietly confident he could offer an individual sound and approach. Certainly he seems to have been the only one playing a Buescher tenor with that strange looking mouthpiece (a fluted Otto Link?); and if the Ben Webster influence is easily discernable, it's where he takes it that makes it feel so right.

This may be a standard set up of organ, bass, drums and tenor sax but it comes across different. Always in the thick of a blues miasma, he had a way of making old combinations sound new and fresh. Indeed, the blues benefited enormously from Quebec's contributions and haven't we all!

Ike Quebec's "Heavy Soul" lives up to its title. But this album is not heavy on up-tempo soul jazz, instead it's heavy on soulful ballads. There are some faster numbers, the Quebec penned "Acquited" and "Que's Dilemma," but it is the slower, sultry standards that set this disc's romantic tone. While I'm generally not a jazz organ fan (unless it's Larry Young or Jimmy Smith), Freddie Roach's playing is refreshingly light, and is spacious enough to allow bassist Milt Hinton room to make his own contributions. (If you look carefully most jazz albums with organ don't use bassists because the sound would get too muddy at the low-end.) While "Heavy Soul" is a rung below "Blue And Sentimental," fans of Ike and organ jazz will love this release.