Jimmy Forrest/Soul Street

[Tom 1960]

Personnel: Jimmy Forrest (tenor saxophone); Oliver Nelson (conductor, tenor saxophone); Jerome Richardson (alto saxophone, flute); King Curtis (tenor saxophone); Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone); Art Farmer, Idrees Sulieman (trumpet); George "Buster" Cooper (trombone); Gene Casey, Hugh Lawson, Ray Bryant (piano); Calvin Newborn, Tiny Grimes (guitar); George Duvivier, Tommy Potter, Wendell Marshall (bass); Roy Haynes, Clarence Johnston, Osie Johnson (drums); Ray Barretto (congas).

Oliver Nelson Big Band includes: George Barrow, Seldon Powell (tenor saxophone); Ernie Royal (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Chris Woods (piano); Mundell Lowe (guitar); Richard Davis (bass); Ed Shaughnessy (drums).

I recently purchased the Oliver Nelson recording "Afro/American Sketches" and I thought this might also be an interesting session? Your thoughts please!

[Soulstation1]

Emusic Pimpin'

[Tom in RI]

I love the session with King Curtis, Oliver Nelson and Jimmy Forrest together.

[brownie]

I recently purchased the Oliver Nelson recording "Afro/American Sketches" and I thought this might also be an interesting session? Your thoughts please!

Very recent thread:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...1&hl=nelson

[mikeweil]

This album is more or less a collection of leftovers issued after Forrest had left Prestige - seems that octet LP with Nelson was begun but abandoned, and they used unissued tracks from the prevous sessions as fillers.

That Forrest/Nelson/Curtis track was added to the respective OJC CD reissue as a bonus track, the other quartet tracks, too, IIRC.

They could have added the Nelson tracks to one of these as well - all that's new to this CD are these 10 1/2 minutes - the CD bonus track was from a Prestige All Stars session. So if one has the other Forrest OJC CDs one gets a lot of duplicates and just 10 1/2 minutes of new music ......

That said, the Neslon arranged tracks are nice but they didn't make me run wild - I had expected much more from that combination, especially after the really nice exchanges on that Soul Battle session.

Edited April 17, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Just re-listened - the 3 tracks Nelson arranged are some kind of reference to the Mancini sound (one tune is a Mancini movie theme). Although there is one Chris Woods listed as pianist, I can't hear a piano on these tracks - was there a pianist with that name? Mundell Lowe's guitar is way up in the mix, and he comps heavily as if to fill the spot of the missing piano. George Barrow and Seldon Powell are credited for tenor sax, but I hear a baritone - Barrow, I suppose. Not the most successful of sessions, and as all of the other tracks were added to the respective sessions as bonus tracks, for completists only.

Edited April 17, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

The personnel you listed is a collective listing.

1: Forrest, Nelson and King Curtis with Gene Casey, George Duvivier and Roy Haynes, Sep 9, 1960

2-3: quartet with Forrest, Hugh Lawson, Tommy Potter and Clarence Johnston, Oct. 19, 1961

4-6: Forrest with Nelson orchestra: Ernie Royal, Jimmy Cleveland, George Barrow, Seldon Powell, Chris Woods (?), Mundell Lowe, Richard Davis, Ed Shaughnessy, June 1, 1962

7: quintet with Forrest, Calvin Newborn and rhythm as 2-3, Sep 1, 1961

8: Prestige All Stars with Forrest, Art Farmer, Idress Sulieman, Buster Cooper, Jerome Richardson, Pepper Adams, Ray Bryant, Tiny Grimes, Wendell Marshall, Osie Johnson, playing a Jerry Valentine arrangement, Aug 29, 1958

Edited April 17, 2007 by mikeweil

[Niko]

Lockjaw Davis - Trane Whistle

marginally off topic, but i love this record and it has great Nelson Big Band arrangements

Edited April 17, 2007 by Niko

[Tom 1960]

Well since the response for "Soul Street" may be lukewarm at best, any thoughts from others on "Soul Battle" as a better alternative?

Edited April 17, 2007 by Tom 1960

[etherbored]

i'm a nelson completist and fanatic. that having been said, 'soul battle' is hands down my least favorite session. it just doesn't gel. too much up front and too little in the back end maybe...

ps: then again, given my experience around here, most of the regulars here may love the date and will tell you to run out and snag it today...

Edited April 17, 2007 by etherbored

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If you're looking for Oliver Nelson material, I'm sure you can get much better than this (though I like this album very much and play it quite a bit). "Takin' care of business" is about my favourite of ON's small group albums - not that I've got a lot, y'know.

If you're looking for Jimmy Forrest material, "Forrest fire" and "Sit down and relax with..." are absolutely brilliant. So too are the albums he made in the 70s with Al Grey and Shirley Scott. This isn't quite as good as any of those.

If you're looking for King Curtis... Oh no - but the two Prestige albums he made "New scene of" and "Soul meeting" are both very good indeed.

This is a very good album. But to my mind it does suffer from the "if A sells 10K of each album, B sells 10K and C sells 10K, then we can sell 30K of this one" syndrome. KC and JF did tend to move a bit in the same circles, but I don't think ON did, so this is just a bit artificial. But I like it.

MG

[mikeweil]

KC and JF did tend to move a bit in the same circles, but I don't think ON did, so this is just a bit artificial. But I like it.

Couldn't say it better!