Those looking to fortify their collections with some prime ’70s indie label jazz just hit the jackpot, as Real Gone Music is reissuing selections from the catalog of Black Jazz Records, including founder Gene Russell’s New Direction, Walter Bishop Jr.’s Coral Keys, The Awakening’s Hear, Sense and Feel, Doug Carn and Jean Carn’s Spirit of the New Land, and Kellee Patterson’s Maiden Voyage. With the exception of Patterson’s album, which arrives on September 25, all are out now on wax, with Russell’s album, Black Jazz’s debut, issued in the first drop of Record Store Day 2020.
Although there have been some recent questions regarding who exactly owned the label, it’s indisputable that pianist Gene Russell was the creative force behind Black Jazz Records, which makes it highly appropriate to begin this consideration of Real Gone’s reissues with New Direction, even as it isn’t necessarily representative of what was to come.
Released in 1971, New Direction is essentially a piano trio, with drums by Steve Clover and bass by either Henry Franklin or Larry Gates, and the lineup augmented on a few tracks with congas, notably played by drummer Tony Williams. The album consists entirely of cover selections, and has a decidedly soul-jazz feel; on one hand, it can be described as a blend of Ahmad Jamal, Red Garland and Ramsey Lewis, but with a welcome predilection for bluesy numbers.
However, the record opens with the Cal Tjader tune “Black Orchid,” which also began and titled a 1962 album for Blue Note from The Three Sounds, and furthermore concludes with “Makin’ Bread,” a song credited to Gene Harris, the pianist for The Three Sounds, the original of which can be found, titled as “Makin’ Bread Again,” on the ’67 Blue Note set Live at the Lighthouse.
Interestingly, Black Jazz released “Black Orchid” and “Makin’ Bread” as a 7-inch, reinforcing how The Three Sounds’ accessible brand of piano trio motion was very much on Russell’s mind. A version of Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” drives the pop-jazz sensibility home even further, though the soul-jazz verve helps keep matters from ever getting innocuous. If not amazing, New Direction holds up as a pretty strong showing.
Pianist Walter Bishop Jr.’s Coral Keys, the second release by Black Jazz, also released in ’71, is a sharp contrast with Russell’s album, as it consists completely of originals by the leader, and lands rather securely in the neighborhood betwixt post-bop and modal jazz. The lineup features the flute, soprano sax and tenor sax of Harold Vick, the bass of Reggie Johnson and the drums of Idris Muhammad on side one and Alan Shwaetz Benger on the flip. Woody Shaw also plays trumpet on side two.
The one man with multiple horns strategy reminds me of the tactic as heard on albums from the ’50s-early ’60s heyday of Modern Jazz, which isn’t unusual as Bishop’s career spans back to jam sessions at Minton’s playhouse and recording with Charlie Parker. He debuted as a leader in ’61 with a trio featuring bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer G.T. Hogan.
By this album’s recording, Vick was also a seasoned player, able to handle the more inside approach of the opening title track (that it’s the only cut with flute doesn’t bother me a bit) and the subsequent dive into abstraction in the fittingly named finale “Freedom Suite.” Bishop’s playing is also solid, as are his compositions, even if “Waltz for Zweetie,” where Vick plays soprano, is more than a little reminiscent of a certain 1960 recording by Coltrane. Overall, the quintet side of the album hits me the hardest, delivering yet another reminder of Shaw’s brilliance on trumpet.
The Awakening’s Hear, Sense and Feel, recorded in ’72 and the Chicago outfit’s first of two for Black Jazz, is a distinctive blend of spiritual motions and post-AACM group methodology, as bassist Reggie Willis and tenor saxman/flautist Ari Brown were alumni of the Chicago organization, plus elements of soul-jazz, with trumpeter Frank Gordon and keyboardist Ken Chaney connected to Young-Holt Unlimited and trombonist Steve Galloway having played on Melvin Jackson’s leftfield soul-jazz monster Funky Skull.
In some ways, Jackson’s album can be considered a prototype for Hear, Sense and Feel, though the two records ultimately sound quite different. What they share are avant-garde elements played by legit avant-aligned musicians and a general disinterest in toeing a conformist line. What distinguishes The Awakening is the depth of their spiritual inclination, though the connection to the AACM had me hoping for stylistic affinities with the Black Artists Group and/ or the St. Louis Creative Ensemble.
‘twas not to be. Instead, there are stretches that blend the lyrical side of Pharoah Sanders’ equation with a few of those aforementioned soul-jazz gestures, though thankfully nothing especially vampy, but more often elements familiar from early fusion. There are a few appealing passages of exploratory breath amid the post-Coltrane motions, but nothing gets too harried. There is also the seemingly unavoidable emergence of flute.
Still, Hear, Sense and Feel proves to be a grower and a clear companion to Spirit of the New Land, in part because vocals figure in the scheme of both, though singing is far more prominent across keyboardist and composer Doug Carn’s second of four releases for Black Jazz, this one issued in ’72. It was the first of two with his then wife Jean as featured vocalist.
As the titles insinuate, the Awakening also share a spiritual component with Carn’s group, which includes trumpeter Charles Tolliver, multi-horn man George Harper, trombonist Garnett Brown and tubist Earl McIntyre, but what helps Spirit of the New Land in standing out, in addition to Jean’s skilled singing, is a robust approach to the then nascent fusion genre; the record’s drummer Alphonse Mouzon was a founding member of Weather Report.
I’ll just say that jazz-rock heads who have yet to get cozy with this LP’s “Trance Dance” are in for a total treat. The playing of Doug (who was involved in the early days of Earth, Wind & Fire) sounds great; hell, everybody sounds terrific throughout. Furthermore, Doug is sturdy as a composer and ambitious, as he adds some lyrics to Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” and Lee Morgan’s “Search for a New Land” for Jean to sing (he also gets a key recurring spoken passage).
Due to its deep social engagement, it’s impossible to dispute that Spirit of the New Land is a dated record, but it’s an example of datedness as an unabashed positive. If Russell’s LP isn’t indicative of the sound of Black Jazz recordings to come, the albums by The Awakening and Doug and Jean Carn’s are. Still, Kellee Patterson’s set, issued in 1973, underscores that the label’s eggs weren’t all securely snuggled into the basket of spiritual jazz and fusion.
It’s easy to just go with the flow and, like Real Gone, describe Maiden Voyage as an artifact of 1970s vocal jazz mellowness, for it certainly is that, but George Harper’s flute on opener “Magic Wand of Love” (and elsewhere) underscores that Black Jazz’s stylistic thrust isn’t far away. Also, the way Patterson glides forth in the version of the Herbie Hancock-composed title cut taps right into jazz’s increasingly accessible expansiveness during this era; instrumentally, the track is a crate-diggers delight.
“Soul Daddy” is a snappy pop-jazz R&B number that was unsurprisingly issued as a single, but the 45’s flip and the album’s closer, “Be All Your Own,” while keeping one foot planted in the pop sphere, is more indicative of Maiden Voyage’s contents. Patterson’s singing is pretty while oozing verve that comes with confidence (she went on to cut some disco numbers, as well as acting on television), and Real Gone’s assessment of the record as tasteful hits the descriptive bullseye.
Gene Russell,
New Direction
B+
Walter Bishop Jr.,
Coral Keys
B+
The Awakening,
Hear, Sense and Feel
A-
Doug Carn and Jean Carn,
Spirit of the New Land
A
Kellee Patterson,
Maiden Voyage
B+
