Sunday, April 19, 2020

Don Patterson – These Are Soulful Days (Muse, 1974)

Don Patterson (org); Jimmy Heath (ts); Pat Martino (g); Albert "Tootie" Heath (d)

Recorded on September 17, 1973

Reissued on 32 Jazz as Steady Comin' at Ya (1998, with three bonus tracks)


When I think of Don Patterson, two hard-hitting tenor saxophonists with whom the organist often worked immediately come to mind: Sonny Stitt and Booker Ervin.  But on this session, the tenor saxophone chair is occupied by Jimmy Heath.  I sometimes wonder if Jimmy and his drumming brother Albert influenced this session.  These Are Soulful Days may be less heated than some of the Patterson sessions that preceded it, but there's no less soul.  And the music gains a measure of refinement and poise that one often associates with the Heath Brothers.

Pat Martino also adds his wonderful and inimitable guitar stylings to the date.  Not surprisingly, Martino's staccato, rat-a-tat-tat-tat sound meshes perfectly with Patterson's wailing Hammond B3.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Project Wrap Up

I've now listed all 366 entries in my survey, one for each day of the year in 2020. Before ending the project, I wanted to share some mo...