Larry Young - Unity (1965)

On Unity, jazz organist Larry Young began to display some of the angular drive that made him a natural for the jazz-rock explosion to come barely four years later. While about as far from the groove jazz of Jimmy Smith as you could get, Young hadn't made the complete leap into freeform jazz-rock either. Here he finds himself in very distinguished company: drummer Elvin Jones, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and saxman Joe Henderson. Young was clearly taken by the explorations of saxophonists Coleman and Coltrane, as well as the tonal expressionism put in place by Sonny Rollins and the hard-edged modal music of Miles Davis and his young quintet. But the sound here is all Young: the rhythmic thrusting pulses shoved up against Henderson and Shaw as the framework for a melody that never actually emerges ("Zoltan" -- one of three Shaw tunes here), the skipping chords he uses to supplant the harmony in "Monk's Dream," and also the reiterating of front-line phrases a half step behind the beat to create an echo effect and leave a tonal trace on the soloists as they emerge into the tunes (Henderson's "If" and Shaw's "The Moontrane"). All of these are Young trademarks, displayed when he was still very young, yet enough of a wiseacre to try to drive a group of musicians as seasoned as this -- and he succeeded each and every time. As a soloist, Young is at his best on Shaw's "Beyond All Limits" and the classic nugget "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." In his breaks, Young uses the middle register as a place of departure, staggering arpeggios against chords against harmonic inversions that swing plenty and still comes out at all angles. Unity proved that Young's debut, Into Somethin', was no fluke, and that he could play with the lions. And as an album, it holds up even better than some of the work by his sidemen here.

By Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Fusion
Hard-Bop
Jazz Funk
Modal

Tracks:
01 - Zoltan (07:36)
02 - Monk's Dream (05:45)
03 - If (06:42)
04 - The Moontrane (07:18)
05 - Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise (06:20)
06 - Beyond All Limits (06:00)

Line-up:
Larry Young: organ
Woody Shaw: trumpet
Joe Henderson: saxophone
Elvin Jones: drums

Larry Young - Lawrence of Newark (1973)

The late Larry Young was an organist whose fairly brief career had lots of highs and very few middles or lows. Take this session from 1973 -- his first non-Blue Note date as a leader and post-Lifetime -- as a for instance. It is startling for its fresh look at how the organ is used in jazz and in improvisation, period. On Lawrence of Newark, Young enlisted a host of younger New York session cats who were hanging around the fringes of the funk and avant-garde scenes -- James Blood Ulmer, trumpeter Charles MacGee, Cedric Lawson, and about a dozen others all jumped into Young's dark and freaky musical stew. Made up of only five tracks, rhythm is the hallmark of the date as evidenced by the conga and contrabass intro to "Sunshine Fly Away." Deirdre Johnson's cello opens up a droning modal line for Young to slide his organ over in what passes for a melody but is more of an idea for a theme and a trio of variations. Armen Halburian's congas echo the accents at the end of the drum kit and Young's own tapering pronouncements moving back and forth between two and four chords with a host of improvisers inducing a transcendent harmonic hypnosis. The centerpiece of the album is "Khalid of Space Pt. 2: Welcome." Sun Ra's edict about all of his musicians being percussionists holds almost literally true in Young's case. The soprano saxophonist sounds as if it could be Sonny Fortune (billed as "mystery guest"), but he's way out on an Eastern modal limb. Young's right hand is punching home the counterpoint rhythm as Abdul Shadi runs all over his kit. Blood Ulmer is accenting the end of each line with overdriven power chords, and various bells, drums, congas, and djembes enter and depart the mix mysteriously. Young is digging deep into the minor and open drone chords, signaling -- à la Miles -- changes in intonation, tempo, and frequency of rhythmic attack. And the cut never loses its pocket funk for all that improvisation. It's steamy, dark, brooding, and saturated with groove. The CD reissue has fine sound and sells for a budget price; it should not be overlooked. The DJs just haven't discovered this one yet. Awesome.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Avant-Garde
Jazz-Funk

Tracks:
01 - Sunshine Fly Away (08:51)
02 - Khalid of Space, Pt. 2 Welcome (12:41)
03 - Saudia (04:31)
04 - Alive (02:01)
05 - Hello Your Questions (Islands) (10:17)

Line-up:
Larry Young - Bongos, Keyboards, Organ, Remixing, Producer, Percussion, Vocals
Pharoah Sanders - Sax (Tenor)
Abdul Sahid - Drums
Armen Halburian - Bells, Percussion, Conga
Stacey Edwards - Conga, Percussion
Dennis Mourouse - Electric Saxophone, Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
Umar Abdul Muizz - Conga, Percussion
Howard King - Drums
James Blood Ulmer - Guitar
Joony Booth - Bass
Cedric Lawson - Piano (Electric)
Charles Magee - Electric Trumpet, Trumpet
Diedre Johnson - Cello
James Flores - Drums
Poppy LaBoy - Percussion
Abdul Hakim - Bongos, Percussion
Jumma Santos - Conga, Cowbell, Tom-Tom, Whistle (Human), Tambourine, Percussion, Hi Hat
Don Pate - Bass
Art Gore - Drums, Piano (Electric)