JOHN PATTON Soul Connection	ALVIN QUEEN Jammin' Uptown

Just A Memory Records

Alvin Queen was thrust onto the jazz scene as a youngster by drummer Elvin Jones during the heyday of Jones’ work with the classic John Coltrane Quartet. Since then he has worked with Charles Tolliver, Randy Weston, Dizzy Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson as well as others. In the 1980s Queen was living in Europe and recording sessions for his own Nilva record label while on tour in the U.S. In 1983 and 1985 repsectively, he recorded Soul Connection under organist John Patton’s name and Jammin’ Uptown as a leader of a group that included Manny Boyd, Terrence Blanchard, and Robin Eubanks.

The group assembled for Patton’s date is no less impressive, with trombonist Granchan Moncur III, tenor man Grant Reed, and guitarist Melvin Sparks all on deck. The recording is straight ahead and has the instant classic quality of the many Blue Note soul jazz sides by Patton and other organists. Reed and Moncur, however, add further elements of modernity and soulfulness with their open playing. Reed worked with Mongo Santamaria in the early ‘70s, and Moncur collaborated closely with alto sax player Jackie McLean as well as performing with a variety of modern jazz musicians. In the original liner notes reproduced here it is noted that “Grant Reed is nasty on tenor sax” on the track ‘Pinto,’ and it’s true that Reed gets down to the nitty-gritty, following up a Patton solo that is full of both grit and sophistication, as is the horn arrangement—it sounds like more than a quintet, somehow. Patton’s other composition, “Extensions,” which follows, is a solid 4/4 number, somewhat reminiscent of Miles Davis’ ‘Four,’ though more in spirit than actual melodic content. Melvin Sparks gets off a nice guitar solo that rollicks directly into Moncur’s trombone solo.

The last two pieces are both Moncur compositions, featuring a swinging feel yet somehow having a more modern feel to them than the other pieces on the disc. And of course, Queen is everywhere, swinging the group like mad, prodding the other musicians along and, at times, being prodded by them as well. Rather than an attempt to recreate the sound of an earlier era, as sometimes occurs on soul jazz-influenced sessions, Soul Connection manages to pay tribute to the earlier sound at the same time it writes a new chapter in the genre’s history.

In 1985 Queen recorded the Jammin’ Uptown sessions as the group’s leader. He tapped veteran musicians Manny Boyd (saxophones) and John Hicks (piano) with young lions Terence Blanchard (trumpet) and Robin Eubanks (trombone), both alumni of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He put together a program that featured compositions from Blanchard, Boyd, Eubanks, and Queen himself, thereby ensuring a mixed bag of pieces representing the best of both generations of musician. The opener, “Europia” is Blanchard’s high-octane post-bop track that comes out of the gate at full speed, yet when Boyd launches into a muscular tenor solo there can be no doubt that he’s completely on the same mental plane as the two younger players. Eubanks demonstrates his complete mastery of the trombone, and then Hicks gets his say. To say that Hicks, a link between Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Bud Powell, and church music, is one of the great pianists of all time is to understate his importance.

Boyd’s contributions are the title track, a swinging shuffle, and “Hassan,” a Latin-meets-Arabic theme that demands (and receives) some incredibly clean ensemble playing. Eubanks’ tunes are the Messengers-esque “After Liberation” and the mellow “Resolution of Love” (the only down-tempo tune on the album), both of which hint at the work he would do with Dave Holland in the following decade. “Hear Me Drummin’” is Queen’s drum solo, from a live recording of a performance in Croatia in 2001, meaning that it was not part of the original release.

Given the gift of these two albums which have not previously been available on CD and the magnificent job of remastering that was done by Claude Lander and Justin Time Records producer Jean-Pierre Leduc, one can easily forgive Queen’s insertion of a magnificent drum solo into Jammin’ Uptown. The fact is, Queen is the driving force behind these sessions and their reissue, and that is cause to be grateful.