Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Gloria Coleman Quartet: Soul Sisters

175

The Gloria Coleman Quartet: Soul Sisters

By

View read count
The Gloria Coleman Quartet: Soul Sisters
Gloria Coleman is about as obscure as it gets; she put out a pair of albums as a leader and that’s about it. As an organist, she’s clearly below greats like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff; she can pound out a few chords and put together a decent solo, but lacks the inventiveness or energy of her fellow musicians. However, when you’ve stacked the deck with gifted improvisers like Grant Green and Leo Wright, you don’t have to do much more than keep the groove churning in the background and stay out of the way. Indeed, that’s what happens, and this 1963 recording is a fairly typical organ jazz album that has a couple of great soloists that raise the bar to make it worthy of attention. There isn’t anything innovative or creative, just a couple of solid ideas that have worked well in the past.

Green was always an eager participant on organ sessions, and his laid back riffing fits right at home once the groove gets going. Wright dazzles as well; a saxophonist who usually found work in other avenues, he adopts the soulful style appropriate to the setting and really digs in with some beautiful playing. The pair makes this album an unexpected treasure, and worth picking up. You won’t feel like you’ve made a discovery, but rather found an artist determined to record something you’ve heard before and always liked.

Track Listing

1. Que Baby 2. Sadie Green 3. Hey Sonny Red 4. Melba

Personnel

Gloria Coleman
organ, Hammond B3

Gloria Coleman

Album information

Title: Soul Sisters | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: Verve Music Group

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.