The Ray Brown Trio Featuring Gene Harris – Soular Energy (Half-speed Mastering)
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€259,00
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Rarity - Sealed
Bass – Ray Brown
Piano – Gene Harris
Drums – Gerryck King
Guitar – Emily Remler
Saxophone – Red Holloway
Written by Jimmy McHugh (A1), Dorothy Fields (A1), Arthur Hamilton (A2), Gene De Paul (A3), Sammy Cahn (A3), Billy Strayhorn (A4), Ray Brown (B1), Alan Brandt (B2), Bob Haymoa (B2), William Count Basie (B3), Sidney Keith Russell (B3), Ben Bernie (B4), Kenneth Casey (B4), Maceo Pinkard (B4)
1 LP, Gatefold jacket
Limited to 3,000 numbered copies
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : Black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Interpress (Germany)
Label : Concord Jazz
Original label : Concord Jazz
Recorded at Coast Recorders, San Francisco, CA
Engineered by Phil Edwards
Mixed by Phil Edwards at PER (San Francisco, California)
Produced by Carl E. Jefferson
Half-speed mastered by George Horn
Art Direction by Dick Hendler
Liner Notes by Larry Kelp
Cover Portrait by Sylvia Barnes
Photography by Ellen Findlay
Originally released in 1985
Reissued in 1991
Tracks:
Side A :
1. Exactly Like You
2. Cry Me A River
3. Teach Me Tonight
4. Take The "A" Train
Side B:
1. Mistreated But Undefeated Blues
2. That's All
3. Easy Does It
4. Sweet Georgia Brown
Reviews:
"This album is important as an early milestone in pianist Gene Harris' second career. Harris, who had led the popular Three Sounds in the 1960s, had been living in obscurity in Boise, ID, for several years before he was urged by bassist Ray Brown to come to the West Coast for some recording sessions. Harris became a permanent member of Brown's regular trio for quite a few years before launching his own quartet. He had lost none of his technique, soul, or swing in the interim, as he shows throughout this fine release. Seven of the eight numbers (highlighted by "Exactly Like You," "Teach Me Tonight," and "Sweet Georgia Brown") feature Brown, Harris, and drummer Gerryck King playing soulful bop, while "Mistreated But Undefeated Blues" adds guitarist Emily Remler and the tenor of Red Holloway. An excellent effort." Allmusic review by Scott Yanow
The late Carl E. Jefferson's Concord Records, (now owned by Concord Music Group, which owns Fantasy, Prestige, Riverside, Stax, Specialty, Telarc, Hear Music etc.), founded in 1972 at a time when the pioneering jazz "majors" Blue Note and the above mentioned Prestige, Riverside, etc. had all been bought and turned into catalog to be "asset managed" with little or no forward direction, remains, like Norman Granz's Pablo Records, among the most underrated and undervalued labels in the used LP market.
There are exceptions in both the Concord and Pablo catalogs, but for the most part you can buy for chump change superb musical and sonic treasures on both labels. For instance on Concord, you can get for not much scratch last time I looked, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers' 1981 release Straight Aheadfeaturing an older Blakey but a very young Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson and others and 1982's Jazz Messengers album Keystone 3 featuring Wynton and Branford (his recorded debut) and others. These are terrific records musically and sonically!
Soular Energy with the Ray Brown Trio, originally issued on Concord in 1985, has long been considered both great straight ahead jazz and an audiophile treasure. It was reissued in 1991 by the German Bellaphon International Sound Service in an edition limited to 3000 copies (probably optimistic given the state of vinyl in 1991!) 1/2 speed mastered from the original tapes by an unidentified mastering engineer, and yet again by King Records "Super Analogue" in Japan and still again half-speed mastered by Stan Ricker in the 2000s and issued along with four "bonus tracks" as a double 180g 33 1/3 LP set on Pure Audiophile Records, but with bonus tracks I always wonder if the cutting source wasn't digital.
The music is straight ahead stuff—nothing ground breaking—but that's just fine. The legendary, late Ray Brown, who surely needs no introduction, is joined by pianist Gene Harris, who from the mid 1950s through the '70s was a member of the "soul/jazz" trio The Three Sounds. Harris then retired to Boise, Idaho where he continued playing in a hotel lounge (!) until Brown coaxed him out of retirement in the early 1980s to join his new group. I believe this record marks Harris' return to recording, after which he fronted his own group and recorded mostly on Concord until he passed away in 2000 at 66 years of age in Boise.
The late Gerryck King, a former member of Joe Williams' trio is on drums. The late tenor saxophonist Red Holloway and the late guitarist Emily Remler (once married for a short time to pianist Monty Alexander who is still alive!) join the trio on one tune.
They run through standards "Exactly LIke You," "Cry Me A River," "Teach Me Tonight", "Take the 'A' Train," "That's All," "Easy Does It", and "Sweet Georgia Brown," plus "Mistreated but Undefeated Blues"—a Brown original— with tremendous energy and drive throughout. Harris's playing pushes everything along and of course Brown takes center stage throughout. Not much else needs to be said about the music or the performances: it's all straight ahead, good humored, bop/soul infused music making of the highest order.
The recording at Coast Recorders in San Francisco. Coast was built by the late great Bill Putnam more than 40 years ago and the main studio remains untouched as it should be!
Ratings :
AllMusic : 4 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.65 / 5