More OJC Goodies: Red Garland and Kenny Burrell with John Coltrane

Once the vinyl renaissance proved the adage that "there is gold in them there hills," labels began scouring their vaults to put out an ongoing stream of products. Owning the rights to over 1.2 million songs, Concord Records was perfectly poised to take advantage of a huge cash cow through vinyl reissues. Their Craft Recordings subsidiary has been a model of not only bringing out worthwhile material but doing it in a manner that ensures high quality and a reasonable price.

Red Garland
Groovy
Craft Recordings
1957

Craft continues to mine their holdings from the Prestige vaults with new reissues in their revitalized OJC series. If there was ever an artist who made the most of his solid relationship with producer Bob Weinstock, it was pianist Red Garland. As a member of a stellar trio with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, Garland found himself at the forefront of Miles Davis' most celebrated recordings. On his own, Garland recorded over two dozen albums for Prestige before moving on to Riverside Records.

For baffling reasons, Weinstock would often assemble Garland's albums from multiple recording sessions. Such is the case with Groovy, recorded in three sessions spanning December of 1956 to August of 1957. The new incarnation of this superb trio album features Paul Chambers along with Art Taylor on drums and the usual mix of medium tempo grooves with slower ballad-type numbers. This is the third album by this trio to be released at that time and the simpatico temperament makes for an engaging listen.

The opening "C-Jam Blues" tip-toes sparsely with a stating of the theme before Garland digs in with his signature mix of block chords and single note runs. Upping the tempo, "Will You Still Be Mine" swings mightily with Taylor's brushwork the model of propulsion. When Chambers gets his say, he goes for a bowed solo which is one of the highlights of the session. A coy turn of a phrase makes "Hey Now" an absolute delight as Garland spins chorus after creative chorus. By contrast, ballad numbers like "Gone Again" and "Willow Weep for Me" proceed at a relaxed pace and demonstrate the cherub-like tones that endeared Davis to Garland's gifts from day one.

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane
Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane
Craft Recordings
1963

As was the case numerous times, Prestige held back the music from the album released as Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane a full five years after its recording in the spring of 1958. Since this would be the last sideman session for John Coltrane for Prestige, there might likely have been some unfinished business following Coltrane's subsequent departure for Atlantic Records. The results are definitely in the jam session vein that Bob Weinstock favored, yet the camaraderie between Coltrane, Kenny Burrell and pianist Tommy Flanagan was of such a high degree that this would be an apropos follow-up to The Cats, which featured the same leading men.

With Burrell and Coltrane delivering the lead lines in unison, "Freight Train" and "Lyresto" swing in typical hard bop fashion. "I Never Knew" is largely a feature for Burrell, his D'Angelico New Yorker already providing an individualistic voice aided and abetted by Rudy Van Gelder's superb production values. Side two kicks off with a beautiful duet between Burrell and Coltrane on "Why Was I Born?." Clocking in at almost a quarter of an hour, the closing "Big Paul" puts Chambers in the spotlight while giving the rest of the crew a chance to stretch out at length. Coltrane is the least impressive member of the crew here, yet we know that bigger and better things were on the horizon for the tenor titan.

Tracks and Personnel

Groovy

Tracks: C-Jam Blues; Gone Again; Will You Still Be Mine?; Willow Weep for Me; Wha Can I Say?; Hey Now.

Personnel: Red Garland: piano; Paul Chambers: bass; Art Taylor: drums.

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane

Tracks: Freight Train; I Never Knew; Lyresto; Why Was I Born?; Big Paul.

Personnel: Kenny Burrell: guitar; John Coltrane: tenor saxophone; Tommy Flanagan: piano; Paul Chambers: bass; Jimmy Cobb: drums.

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