Home » Jazz Articles » My Blue Note Obsession » Bennie Green: Bennie Green: Soul Stirrin’ - 1958

16

Bennie Green: Bennie Green: Soul Stirrin’ - 1958

By

View read count
A bluesy, almost pre-bop record... This is soul before it became funky.
In the 1950s, Blue Note was a reliable bastion of hard bop. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers set the tone, and dozens of artists—some famous, some not—followed. But Blue Note also had small oases of not-bop, often by artists you've never heard of.

Bennie Green is one of those guys, and if you haven't heard him, you should. Specifically, you should hear Soul Stirrin'.

This is a bluesy, almost pre-bop record. Green plays trombone, but not in a J.J. Johnson bebop style. Much of Soul Stirrin' generally, and Green's playing in particular, have a swing feel. And much of it is just plain old, straight up blues.

It is an absolute pleasure.

Soul Stirrin' starts with the title song, a slow blues grind. This is soul before it became funky. Green plays fat, emotional blues notes. Pianist Sonny Clark, a Blue Note regular, adds a solo that comes straight from a smoky midnight jazz bar. Saxmen Gene Ammons and Billy Root add their flavors.

Five more songs follow, each different from the last. "We Wanna Cook" strikes a bebop tone—the only song on the album that does—with Ammons (or is it Root?) playing hard and fast in a way that reminds me of Paul Gonsalves' long, legendary solo with Duke Ellington at Newport just two years earlier—funky and almost rocking.

"That's All" is a sweet, beautiful ballad. Green is wonderful—soft and gentle and dreamy. "Lullabye of the Doomed" is, as the title implies, a mournful dirge. Green's trombone weeps, and the saxophones are full of swirling smoke. It reminds me of Miles Davis on "My Funny Valentine," or Ellington's "Mood Indigo." The closer, "Black Pearl," is a happy, lively tune that allows each soloist to shine.

The only downer, and it's a small one, is "B.G. Mambo." The theme is sort of cheesy, though it does give way to seven minutes of very pleasant solos, before returning to the goofy theme.

All in all, Soul Stirrin' is an unexpected pleasure from a jazz man who is largely forgotten. Now that I've discovered Bennie Green, I want to hear more.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Not rare, but not common either

Cost: Just $5.34 on MP3, but $17 new and $11 or $12 used

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.