Larry Young

[JSngry]

For those who dig UNITY to the nth degree (and that would be me, for sure), I would suggest checking out Charles Earland's LEAVING THIS PLANET, originally a 2-Lp set on Prestige, and now available as a single OJC CD. You got Joe back on baord, Freddie Hubbard in place of Woody Shaw, no Elvin, a conguero, and some of the material is funky/fusion oriented, but the best stuff (easily enough for a single Lp w/leftovers) is very much in the spirit of UNITY. It's not as startling, because it's 10 years or so after the fact and you can't replace that rush of the now in the playing that comes through in the listening, but still, it's a DAMN fine record, perhaps the last great organ record made before the drought.

Highly, if a tad conditionally, recommended.

[Nate Dorward]

A few belated responses:

1) I had (no longer have) the belatedly issued CD that pairs up a bunch of Pony Poindexter material with the incomplete album of Larry Young, Booker Ervin & Jimmie Smith (the drummer). It's OK if you're curious but not nearly as good as you'd imagine from Ervin & Young being together. There's one Young original (miscredited on the sleeve to Poindexter as "Absotively Posalutely"--if I remember rightly it's "Back-Up", which turns up later on the disc with Sam Rivers), & a few standards, mostly rather low key (including two takes of "Old Folks"). The drummer isn't anything to write home about, & Ervin & Young don't really mesh--in fact Young mostly just plays the head & takes a solo, then Ervin comes in much later, plays a solo then bows out.

2) I have the Mosaic set. Basically there's a good reason the material from after Unity hasn't been rereleased: it's all middling to downright bad, & is virtually unidentifiable as the work of the guy who made Unity, the albusm with Green & Into Something. The one good one is Mother Ship with Lee Morgan, Young's late Blue Note disc; it's not his best, but it's certainly worth hearing. But there are three albums in between which are best left untouched--his free-jazz effort Of Love and Peace (which has its moments admittedly), & his two efforts at more commercial stuff, Contrasts & Heaven on Earth (with his wife Althea doing the vocals--"Wild Is the Wind" & "My Funny Valentine", both excruciating--& George Benson on the latter disc). The one notable track is "Major Affair" on Contrasts, an organ-drums duo which compares well with "Monk's Dream" from Unity. It was at one point available separately on The Art of Larry Young compilation along with one piece from Of Love and Peace.

Has anyone heard the late duo album with Joe Chambers? Now that's one I'm curious about....

[Rooster_Ties]

Althea's vocals notwithstanding, I really like most of Larry Young's post-Unity work on BN.

As has been discussed much of late, "Mother Ship" is outstanding (5-stars, IMHO), but I really like the other three BN albums as well:

1966's "Of Love and Peace" certainly is a bit on the loose side, but it definitely has lots of great moments - and features some prime Eddie Gale (tp), Herbert Morgan (ts), and James Spaulding (as & fl). Could have used some more rehearsal probably, but even as it is - I usually give it 4-stars.

1967's "Contrasts" maybe comes in a close second behind "Of Love..." - but with Tyrone Washington (ts), how could you go wrong?? Plus some more Herbert Morgan (ts), and some interesting contributions from Eddie Wright (g). 3 and 1/2 stars from me.

1968's "Heaven on Earth" is probably my least favorite of the four later Young BN dates, but even it has it's moments. Some days 3-stars, some only 2 and 1/2 -- depends on my mood.

[brownie]

The Booker Ervin-Larry Young that appeared on the Pony Poindexter/Ervin CD is a real beauty. Sublime but too short session.

A non-BN Larry Young session that needs to be listened is the Joe Chambers 'Double Exposure' duo date that came out on Muse. Another beauty!