Personnel:
Clark Terry (tp, flh), Bill Hardman (tp), Curtis Fuller (tb), Junior Cook, Charlie Rouse, Frank Haynes (ts), Horace Parlan, Billy Gardner (p), Peck Morrison, Ben Tucker (b), Dave Bailey (d)
Reference: BMCD 1630
Bar code: 8427328016308
All sides here were recorded during a series of blowing sessions that put great emphasis on the soloists. The moving spirit behind them was drummer Dave Bailey. All musicians involved play without strain, generating the kind of explosion only jazz can create.
The three opening tunes were issued on the album One Foot in the Gutter, the first Bailey did as a leader, and as he himself explained in the original liner notes, we had unusual freedom throughout, not only in what we played, but in what we did, and at one point you can hear Clark Terry and Junior Cook enthusiastically applauding one of Curtis Fullers solos. That was the spirit of the session, and the audience joined right in.
This collection has several things going for it, not the least of which is the work of Charlie Rouse, Grant Green, and Ben Tucker. Rouse communicates with his personal brand of restrained head, and Greens playing is spare, direct and simple. Tucker, with his strong walking lines and bumps, lifts the whole group on his shoulders, while Bailey swings in the most relaxed manner.
"This remarkable album illustrates what musicians mean by soul. Here are six gifted, congenial musicians, playing before an audience, without arrangements, and producing that incomparable explosion only jazz can create. The selections, three in number, are based on the blues; the moving spirit is drummer Dave Bailey."
From the original 'One Foot in the Gutter' liner notes.
