A fairly typical Blue Note album, containing some good work by some of the better young modernists. It never gets too far out, but I find some of Shorter’s compositions – he wrote all these themes – somewhat too contrived.
The best players to me are Workman, who plays some very powerful bass and who sounds quite exceptional on the doomy Charcoal Blues, and Lee Morgan who gets better and better each time I hear him. Always full of technique, his playing is now much more disciplined, eschewing vulgarity and relying on his broad tone and imagination for results. He plays beautifully on Dreamer, his long solo sounding warm and rhythmically sure.
Shorter’s tone I find a little too astringent and squeezed to be really attractive. He does, however, play in much more lyrical fashion on the slow Virgo, a track which also contains some good piano by Tyner. Jones’ drumming is supple and very driving.
Discography
Night Dreamer; Oriental Folk Song; Virgo (19 min) – Black Nile; Charcoal Blues; Armageddon (18½ min)
Wayne Shorter (ten); Lee Morgan (tpt); McCoy Tyner (p); Reginald Workman (bs); Elvin Jones (d).
(Blue Note 4173 12inLP 45s. 3d.)
