[EKE BBB]

I must recognize I´m a newbie to Larry Young. Recently picked UNITY and, to my ears, it sounded wonderful.

Besides searching where to go after UNITY at AMG, I´d like to know your recommendations.

I´d like those recommendations

- to be comprised of two or three CDs at the most.
- to be similar to UNITY, I mean similar ensemble (including at least one horn - no organ trios - ) and kind of compositions.

And furthermore, as I´m a newbie, I´d kindly ask you to avoid "completist" items such as Mosaic.... ;)

Thanks in advance!

[Claude]

There are not many Larry Young albums available currently, as most Blue Note sessions are out of print. Mother ship will be reissued in October.

Into somethin' is the album that comes closest to "Unity" in terms of instrumentation and style. It has Sam Rivers on tenor. It was reissued in 1998 in the Connoisseur series and is now OOP, but still available in some online stores.

This post has been edited by Claude: 26 September 2003 - 04:04 AM

[king ubu]

EKE, :tup for Into Somethin'! And if you're into Grant Green, get his albums with Larry Young (they're 3, but one has only the trio of Green-Young-Elvin Jones - the core band of all three - and no horns, the other has Bobby Hutcherson and no horns and is a gem, the third has Hank Mobley is a lesser effort, in my opinion, but still very nice.)
Otherwise, I, too, am no Larry Young specialist at all.

ubu

[EKE BBB]

Yes ubu, I´m a big fan of some Grant Green´s Blue Notes (Standards, The complete quartets with Sonny Clark, Idle moments, Matador...). Maybe I should pick one of those Young-Green dates.... even if there´s no horn there!

[Aggie87]

EKE -
Another recommendation for Into Somethin'.

If you don't mind a slight blue-ish tint on the cover, you can pick it up from Fresh Sound Record's website (right there in Spain, no less!) for a mere €5.75, plus shipping & handling!

Check it out...

[Aggie87]

:D

[Rooster_Ties]

Really, your only two options are Into Somethin' (which is out-of-print, but still pretty easy to find) and Mother Ship (which comes out for the first time on CD in less than 2 weeks). There are three other Larry Young BN albums that have never been released on CD (except on the long out-of-print Mosaic box set).

Also, there is a one-disc overview of Young's BN output called "The Art of Larry Young", which is also out of print, but does still turn up on eBay now and again. (Although I'd just get someone to burn the Mosaic for you, rather than mess with this one-disc compilation.)

There are several copies of Into Something' available at half.com right now, and you can CLICK HERE to see them. (Currently 3 copies are available at $9.99 each, plus $2.49 in shipping charges.)

There's also a copy of Into Somethin' available on eBay right now, with an opening bid of $5.99 (plus $2.50 shipping). CLICK HERE to see this item.

And failing all those choices, I also have a TOCJ of Into Somethin' which I have been looking to sell or trade to someone, although it doesn't include the bonus track (6. Ritha [alternate quartet version] - 6:51), which is only on the U.S. Conn release. (The released verison of "Ritha" doesn't have Sam Rivers on it.)

[kinuta]

Don't forget the two Prestige/New Jazz sets, Testifying and Young Blues recorded at Englewood by RVG. Into Somethin' is a must have though.

[John B]

I'll buck the trend and recommend this one:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f518/f51877ma6lq.jpg

some great sax by "special guest" Pharoah Sanders on this disc.

This post has been edited by John B: 26 September 2003 - 07:10 AM

[Rooster_Ties]

Oh, EKE BBB, I see you're not from the U.S. - so never mind about those half.com links I gave you. (The rat-bastards won't sell to non-U.S./non-Canadian customers.)

Aggie87, on Sep 26 2003, 05:44 AM, said:

If you don't mind a slight blue-ish tint on the cover, you can pick up Into Somethin' from Fresh Sound Record's website (right there in Spain, no less!) for a mere €5.75, plus shipping & handling!

So, then, probably the cheapest way for you to pick this up is from Freshsounds (and their special "extra blue" Blue Note series). I understand that many of these titles are taken from TOCJ masters (from Japan), which means no bonus tracks - although you do get very good sound that way. (I also understand that this "extra blue" series doesn't include the text from the liner-notes, although it does have the front and back covers of the album reproduced.)

[Gary]

Rooster_Ties, on Sep 26 2003, 02:57 PM, said:

Oh, EKE BBB, I see you're not from the U.S. - so never mind about those half.com links I gave you.  (The rat-bastards won't sell to non-U.S./non-Canadian customers.)

Aggie87, on Sep 26 2003, 05:44 AM, said:

If you don't mind a slight blue-ish tint on the cover, you can pick up Into Somethin' from Fresh Sound Record's website (right there in Spain, no less!) for a mere €5.75, plus shipping & handling!

So, then, probably the cheapest way for you to pick this up is from Freshsounds (and their special "extra blue" Blue Note series). I understand that many of these titles are taken from TOCJ masters (from Japan), which means no bonus tracks - although you do get very good sound that way. (I also understand that this "extra blue" series doesn't include the text from the liner-notes, although it does have the front and back covers of the album reproduced.)

i have this version of 'into somethin' & a few more of the Blue Blue Notes - i'm sure they do have liner notes (i'll double check the Larry Young when i get home )
I have no complaints about the sound quality & the music SMOOOKKKEESSSSS!!!

Im sure some Larry Young RVGs must be due for those of us that were too late to pick up the mosaic.

[Rooster_Ties]

I don't actually own any of the "blue" BN series CD's.

I had just heard from one person that this one particular disc that they bought (maybe a Donald Byrd title?) didn't have liner-notes, just repros of the front and back covers. Maybe it was just that one title, or maybe the whole series, or maybe he didn't have any idea what he was talkin' about. No idea.

[king ubu]

Gary, on Sep 26 2003, 03:04 PM, said:

Im sure some Larry Young RVGs must be due for those of us that were too late to pick up the mosaic.

yes PLEEEEAZE!

[Gary]

Rooster_Ties, on Sep 26 2003, 03:22 PM, said:

I don't actually own any of the "blue" BN series CD's.

I had just heard from one person that this one particular disc that they bought (maybe a Donald Byrd title?) didn't have liner-notes, just repros of the front and back covers. Maybe it was just that one title, or maybe the whole series, or maybe he didn't have any idea what he was talkin' about. No idea.

you may be right Rooster , i just seem to remember reading liner notes from a Kenny Dorham i picked up . Im not 100 per cent sure myself .

[Jim Dye]

Here's a non-Young suggestion. If you really dig Unity, check out this record:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008AY5L.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Bill Heid - Da Girl

Check out this real player sample:

http://mfile.akamai.....ram?obj=v30603

You'll love it!

[Soul Stream]

Is "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Talkin' About" and/or "Street Of Dreams" still in print???

Those are ALL top notch.

[king ubu]

Soul Stream, on Sep 26 2003, 05:56 PM, said:

Is "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Talkin' About" and/or "Street Of Dreams" still in print???

Those are ALL top notch.

They should all be. Thanks for mentioning the titles (I was far too lazy looking them up)! I meant these three Green albums, EKE! These are all great. You gotta have'em anyway, if you also like Green!

ubu

[BruceH]

Yet another vote for Into Somethin'! Personally, I like it more than Unity.

[Swinging Swede]

kinuta, on Sep 26 2003, 02:00 PM, said:

Don't forget the two Prestige/New Jazz sets, Testifying and Young Blues recorded at Englewood by RVG.

There was a third Prestige album, also recorded by van Gelder.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000Z9R.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

There was also a fourth Young-led Prestige session, recorded in early 1964, that remained unissued until 1999, when it was included on this CD:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre200/e271/e27117oqzc4.jpg

The first three albums are firmly in the soul jazz genre. The fourth session, which I haven’t heard yet, teams him with Booker Ervin, and may be more advanced. Anyone heard it?

This post has been edited by Swinging Swede: 26 September 2003 - 01:27 PM

[mikeweil]

I'd also recommend this album, which Larry's trio recorded one week after their Prestige debut, if you like Testifyin', this is for you:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000YB7.01._PE_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[EKE BBB]

Thanks for your recs, guys! I´m afraid that (again and again) each thread costs me lots of money! :D :lol: :P

[Soul Stream]

mikeweil, on Sep 26 2003, 02:29 PM, said:

I'd also recommend this album, which Larry's trio recorded one week after their Prestige debut, if you like Testifyin', this is for you:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000YB7.01._PE_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I second the HELL out of this one. As far as stuff that wasn't really the Larry Young style we know this is the champ imho. This is Larry before he was LARRY YOUNG. But he was still a great Smith-based stylist and on this Jimmy Forrest record and he's smoking.

[Brad]

Another vote for Inta Something. Speaking of Jimmy Forrest, if you want to hear some early Grant, check out Forrest's All the Gin is Gone, on Delamark. You won't be disappointed. Grant's first recorded session.

[Jim Alfredson]

Bill Heid is a motherfucker. Anyone who calls himself a fan of the Hammond organ that doesn't have one of Bill's CD is a fool.

:)

I'm only half-joking. THE GUY IS THE REAL DEAL! Tony Monaco can kiss it. Bill Heid is where it's at, baby.

:g

[Parkertown]

The two Larry Youngs on Prestige that kinuta mentions, the Jimmy Forrest set and others, the Bill Heid: all of these are available on emusic.com

Thanks to the recs in this thread, I'm downloading all of those right now!

B)

[JSngry]

For those who dig UNITY to the nth degree (and that would be me, for sure), I would suggest checking out Charles Earland's LEAVING THIS PLANET, originally a 2-Lp set on Prestige, and now available as a single OJC CD. You got Joe back on baord, Freddie Hubbard in place of Woody Shaw, no Elvin, a conguero, and some of the material is funky/fusion oriented, but the best stuff (easily enough for a single Lp w/leftovers) is very much in the spirit of UNITY. It's not as startling, because it's 10 years or so after the fact and you can't replace that rush of the now in the playing that comes through in the listening, but still, it's a DAMN fine record, perhaps the last great organ record made before the drought.

Highly, if a tad conditionally, recommended.

[Nate Dorward]

A few belated responses:

1) I had (no longer have) the belatedly issued CD that pairs up a bunch of Pony Poindexter material with the incomplete album of Larry Young, Booker Ervin & Jimmie Smith (the drummer). It's OK if you're curious but not nearly as good as you'd imagine from Ervin & Young being together. There's one Young original (miscredited on the sleeve to Poindexter as "Absotively Posalutely"--if I remember rightly it's "Back-Up", which turns up later on the disc with Sam Rivers), & a few standards, mostly rather low key (including two takes of "Old Folks"). The drummer isn't anything to write home about, & Ervin & Young don't really mesh--in fact Young mostly just plays the head & takes a solo, then Ervin comes in much later, plays a solo then bows out.

2) I have the Mosaic set. Basically there's a good reason the material from after Unity hasn't been rereleased: it's all middling to downright bad, & is virtually unidentifiable as the work of the guy who made Unity, the albusm with Green & Into Something. The one good one is Mother Ship with Lee Morgan, Young's late Blue Note disc; it's not his best, but it's certainly worth hearing. But there are three albums in between which are best left untouched--his free-jazz effort Of Love and Peace (which has its moments admittedly), & his two efforts at more commercial stuff, Contrasts & Heaven on Earth (with his wife Althea doing the vocals--"Wild Is the Wind" & "My Funny Valentine", both excruciating--& George Benson on the latter disc). The one notable track is "Major Affair" on Contrasts, an organ-drums duo which compares well with "Monk's Dream" from Unity. It was at one point available separately on The Art of Larry Young compilation along with one piece from Of Love and Peace.

Has anyone heard the late duo album with Joe Chambers? Now that's one I'm curious about....

[Rooster_Ties]

Althea's vocals notwithstanding, I really like most of Larry Young's post-Unity work on BN.

As has been discussed much of late, "Mother Ship" is outstanding (5-stars, IMHO), but I really like the other three BN albums as well:

1966's "Of Love and Peace" certainly is a bit on the loose side, but it definitely has lots of great moments - and features some prime Eddie Gale (tp), Herbert Morgan (ts), and James Spaulding (as & fl). Could have used some more rehearsal probably, but even as it is - I usually give it 4-stars.

1967's "Contrasts" maybe comes in a close second behind "Of Love..." - but with Tyrone Washington (ts), how could you go wrong?? Plus some more Herbert Morgan (ts), and some interesting contributions from Eddie Wright (g). 3 and 1/2 stars from me.

1968's "Heaven on Earth" is probably my least favorite of the four later Young BN dates, but even it has it's moments. Some days 3-stars, some only 2 and 1/2 -- depends on my mood.

[brownie]

The Booker Ervin-Larry Young that appeared on the Pony Poindexter/Ervin CD is a real beauty. Sublime but too short session.
A non-BN Larry Young session that needs to be listened is the Joe Chambers 'Double Exposure' duo date that came out on Muse. Another beauty!