Yet another organist to arrive at the Blue Note studios who knows just how to fit into a rhythm team. Young’s touch is light, but he is there all the time, and he never overlays his bedmates with the power of his instrument. If he hasn’t yet achieved a distinctive personal style, a difficult thing to find on the organ, he has at least by his own efforts written some fresh material of sufficiently varied colours to keep the listener interested. Except for the Plaza De Toros (how that Spanish tinge does keep creeping in!), which is by Grant Green, all the rest of the titles are by Young. Backup, a blues, is an especially attractive theme. Green, with his uncomplicated, rather spare lines, swings easily but unemotionally. Rivers takes a very basic blues chorus, and the rhythm is extremely buoyant. Ritha is a very pleasant melody, reminiscent of some of the material Eddie Lang used to play – in fact Green here sounds not unlike him in some respects. As an album this holds no surprises, but on the other hand neither does it annoy nor irritate.
Discography
Tyrone; Plaza De Toros (19 min) – Paris Eyes; Backup; Ritha (19½ min)
Larry Young (org); Sam Rivers (ten); Grant Green (g); Elvin Jones (d). Rivers does not play on Ritha.
(Blue Note 4187 12inLP 45s. 3d.)
