Jazz Articles about Les McCann

About Les McCann

Building a Jazz Library

Somewhere between the soul-jazz of the early sixties (often called “funk" in its day) and the disco of the mid-seventies, funk jazz was born. Rock was already crossing over into jazz. And it just made sense that rock would inject soul jazz with a greater sense of urgency and a stronger feel for the groove. Funk had that thing that made soul and any other kinds of dance music what it was--a deep, true conviction to getting you ...

Album Review

Les McCann: Invitation to Openness

Read "Invitation to Openness" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 6, 2015

It is a simple matter of acid-base stoichiometry like that learned in any quantitative chemical analysis or medicinal chemistry course. If one treats the acid element of Parliament Funkadelic's Maggot Brain (Westbound, 1971) with the sweet bass of Leroy Vinnegar, then infuse as with juniper with gin, with honey and morphine: Les McCann's monumental Invitation to Openness would result. Ornette Coleman may have detonated a nuclear music device with Free Jazz; A Collective Improvisation (Atlantic, 1961), but it was McCann ...

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Album Review

Les McCann: Invitation to Openness

Read "Invitation to Openness" reviewed by Germein Linares

by Germein Linares
April 25, 2005

Les McCann is an interesting figure in jazz. After winning a talent contest on the Ed Sullivan Show in '56, McCann turned down an opportunity to join Cannonball Adderley's group, deciding instead to form his own jazz trio in Los Angeles. Playing a popular blend of hard bop and soul jazz, he signed with Pacific Jazz in '60, produced several enjoyable albums, and continued to develop and define the sound he wanted. That sound, a restless brew of jazz, funk, ...

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Album Review

Les McCann: Pump It Up

Read "Pump It Up" reviewed by Craig W. Hurst

by Craig W. Hurst
December 8, 2002

The venerable jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann finds himself a master of funk on Pump It Up. With a “tight as a fist” rhythm section of bass, drums, guitar and Hammond B-3 organ, McCann’s band has a groove funkier than the law allows. Crisp drumming with hammering backbeats, plus chunky bass and organ figures underscore McCann’s vocals that at times more closely resemble a rap recitation than singing. Honking saxophone solos and harmonious background vocals that comment on McCann’s ...

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Album Review

Les McCann / The Mitchell-Ruff Trio: 20 Special Fingers

Read "20 Special Fingers" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
August 1, 1999

The twenty fingers in the title for this double reissue CD come from two exciting piano trios of the 1960s. Both Les McCann and Dwike Mitchell offer blues-based, gospel influenced piano storytelling on their Atlantic albums Much Les and The Catbird Seat, respectively. McCann was at the peak of his career then, still using an acoustic piano and always infusing a groove into his work. Mitchell and Ruff started out at about the same time as McCann: the mid-‘50s. Bassist ...

Album Review

Les McCann/Mitchell-Ruff Trio: Twenty Special Fingers

Read "Twenty Special Fingers" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 1, 1999

The idea goes like this. The hip and jazz-loving Joel Dorn and his folks as 32 Jazz have decided to introduce a series whereby they put out two albums by different artists that are somehow related in one package. This two-disc set brings together two Atlantic classics, the previously available Much Les from Les McCann and the long out-of-print The Catbird Seat by the Mitchell-Ruff Trio. So it tells us in the opening liner notes, McCann had expressed his affection ...

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Album Review

Les McCann/The Mitchell-Ruff Trio: 20 Special Fingers

Read "20 Special Fingers" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
May 1, 1999

20 Special Fingers is an unusual two-disc combination of Les McCann's 1968 Atlantic debut, Much Les (already available on CD as a Rhino two-fer) with the Mitchell-Ruff Trio's 1961 Atlantic debut, The Catbird Seat. Joel Dorn, producer of the McCann set and owner of the label that issued this set, explains this oddity by recalling in the disc's notes a favorite McCann performance of “Yours Is My Heart Alone" (from 1964) that was evidently inspired by Dwike ...