Joe Zawinul: Money In The Pocket

"Money In The Pocket" itself, one of three Zawinul originals here, made with tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan and trumpeter Blue Mitchell, is classic Blue Note hard bop in everything but record label. Four other tracks recorded with a three horn frontline—tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams and Mitchell, with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes from the Adderley band—take in bop and soul jazz. Jones' "Some More Of Dat" is a generic dead ringer for contemporaneous Adderley or pianist Horace Silver (Mitchell, Jordan, Henderson and Hayes were all Silver alumni). All these tracks are good, but even by the standards of the time they are pretty ordinary. Zawinul's modal-flavored "Riverbed," though hardly radical, is the disc's most singular composition.

There are, however, two ballad readings of note: Guy Wood's and Robert Mellin's "My One And Only Love" and Rudy Stephenson's "Sharon's Waltz." The first is performed solo by Zawinul, the second with Jones and Hayes. Lyrical and just the right side of rococo, Zawinul's solos are delightful, in the same ballpark as "Come Sunday," the Zawinul feature with the Adderley band heard on the YouTube clip below.

Zawinul's Money In The Pocket, reissued as part of Warner Jazz's Atlantic Masters series, isn't to be confused with the Adderley band's album of the same title, recorded live in 1966 and later released by Capitol.