Jazz Articles about Charles Earland

About Charles Earland

Liner Notes

It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the sound of jazz could be heard lingering in the smoky corners of neighborhood bars in every major city from New York to Los Angeles. These ghetto hangouts were on what was often called the 'chitlin' circuit,' a network of predominantly black operated venues that presented organ combos as the norm. Be it at The Smiling Dog Saloon in Cleveland or The Front Room in Newark, jazz and more ...

133

Album Review

Charles Earland: Black Talk!

Read "Black Talk!" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
December 3, 2006

One of the all-time classic soul-jazz records gets its turn at remastering by Rudy van Gelder, the original engineer of the 1969 session. Charles Earland had a strong affinity for the organ, though he didn't start on the instrument. He began his career as a saxophonist, playing in groups with organists like Jimmy McGriff and Gene Ludwig before making his unconventional instrumental switch, eventually joining Lou Donaldson's group. His playing exploits the organ's capacity for sustain and ...

402

Album Review

Lou Donaldson: Say It Loud!

Read "Say It Loud!" reviewed by Germein Linares

by Germein Linares
June 24, 2005

Lou Donaldson's Say It Loud! is finally on CD. Recorded for Blue Note in '69, this is one of several late-'60s albums by the legendary alto saxophonist that tend to get little respect. That's too bad, really. Apart from sporting a very capable band in trumpeter Blue Mitchell, guitarist Jimmy Ponder, organist Charles Earland and drummer Leo Morris, the five selections on Say It Loud! are undeniably fun.True, there aren't great answers on God or the circle of ...

275

Album Review

Charles Earland: Black Drops

Read "Black Drops" reviewed by Derek Taylor

by Derek Taylor
December 1, 2002

“The Mighty Burner” isn’t the kind of moniker bestowed on just any man. Charles Earland earned it by cultivating one of the grittiest and greasiest organ attacks of the early Seventies. His skills behind the B-3 are in full effect on this smoldering slab of fusion-laced funk from '70. Regular sidemen like Pruden and Jones take their place beside surprise reed wild card Jimmy Heath in the horn frontline and dig into an eclectic set of standards from the jazz, ...

162

Album Review

Charles Earland: The Almighty Bu rner

by John Sharpe
August 1, 2000

Jazz/funk organist Charles Earland, who died on December 11, 1999 of a heart attack at age 58, began his musical career playing saxophone in a high school dance band. Earland switched to the Hammond B-3 in 1963 and like so many who have taken up that instrument he would never scale the heights or escape the comparisons to organ maestro Jimmy Smith. However, Earland did enjoy limited commercial success with a series of fine records during the late-60s and early-70s ...

232

Album Review

Charles Earland: The Almighty Burner

by Mark Corroto
August 1, 2000

The organ-jazz revival of the 1990s brought a flood of reissues from Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, and John Patton along with the new stars of the organ Joey DeFrancesco, Larry Goldings, and John Medeski. Charles Earland’s career got a boost too, reviving his 1960’s soul sound. Earland a bop-ishly straight-ahead B-3 man, died last year at the age of 58. His beginnings, with Pat Matino and Lou Donaldson, established a theme of the saxophone/organ and guitar/organ sound that could be ...

200

Album Review