Jazz Articles

Robben Ford: Robben Ford- Anthology: The Early Years

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2001

Robben Ford knew all there was to know about the blues pentonic scale before he was 20 years old.

Anthology: The Early Years catalogs a pre-Yellowjackets, pre-Miles Davis, teenaged Robben Ford. This is significant because, Ford, at this time (between 1972 and 1976), shows more aptitude for the Blues than players do twice his age. This current compilation is based on four releases Ford made for Avenue Jazz (now codistributed with the Bethlehem archive). Thirteen of the nineteen tracks are ...

Robben Ford: Sunrise

by Robert Spencer
August 1, 1999

Sunrise is aptly named, for this 1972 recording captures Robben Ford's stinging blues guitar at the dawn of his career. It contains the hallmarks of Ford's now long-familiar style: non-stop solos of brisk funk logic; clean and exquisitely formed lines; and a monster groove. There's also quite a bit of vocal work on this one: by Ford himself on Willie Dixon's “Red Rooster," Miles Davis' “Eighty One," and Ford's own “Sunrise." The one and only Jimmy Witherspoon shows up too ...

The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet: The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1999

There's no use denying it, so I'll confess: I am not a big jazz flute fan. The instrument has always seemed to me to be too slight to power a rhythm section and too breathy to maintain an individual attractiveness. But Herbie Mann and Sam Most have converted me on this unlikeliest of ensembles, a double flute quintet.The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet is a 1956 album of eleven genial, high-spirited tracks featuring Mann and Most trading bright, up-tempo, ...