Dig This, recorded and released in 1972, is the second of Bobbi Humphrey's seven Blue Note albums; it is also her sophomore recording. The album was produced by then-label president George Butler. He had signed Humphrey and helmed her debut, Flute In, the previous year. Recorded at A&R Studios, the young flutist was teamed with bassists Ron Carter and Wilbur Bascomb, Jr., powerhouse drummer Alphonse Mouzon, guitarists David Spinozza and William Fontaine, and keyboardists Harry Whitaker and Paul Griffin. While the album’s formula didn’t deviate that much from her debut -- an easy, tasty balance of soul, pop, and jazz tunes -- the material, production, and Humphrey’s confidence all stand out here. Check her reading of Bill Withers' “Lonely Town, Lonely Street,” as she stretches the melody to meet Bascomb's and Spinozza’s funky grooves. While strings swoop and hover, threatening to overtake the mix, her plaintive style goes right at them with meaty, in-the-pocket phrasing. Her version of Whitfield and Strong’s “Smiling Faces Sometimes” is well-known in pop culture for the sample that appeared on Common’s “Puppy Chow,” but taking the tune in full, Humphrey’s gift as a soloist is revealed in full, as she winds around and through funky clavinets, Rhodes, strings, guitars, and Mouzon’s popping snare. The reading of Stevie Wonder's “I Love Every Little Thing About You,” with its bubbling basslines and Humphrey’s understatement of the melody, make this a bright, shining jazz-funk number. “El Mundo de Maravillas (A World of Beauty),” is one of two fine Mouzon compositions to appear here, this one commences with a cello in a spacy, soulful ballad that showcases Humphrey’s classical chops before it moves into funk terrain and then back again. The set closer is a souled-out reading of Kenny Barron's “Nubian Lady,” with chunky guitars, Bascomb’s Fender bass, shuffling drums, and Humphrey adding air and space to the knotty groove. While Dig This is not the revelation that Blacks and Blues is (it appeared two years later), it is nonetheless a stone killer example of jazz-funk in its prime, and should be considered an essential part of the canon.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Beginning in 1966, saxophonist Ornette Coleman began performing and recording with his son, the then-ten-year-old drummer Denardo Coleman. Dismissed by some at the time for his lack of experience, the younger Coleman quickly developed into an engaging, explosive player, able to mesh nicely within his father's deeply avant-garde free jazz ensembles. The 2017 Real Gone Music collection Ornette at 12/Crisis brings together two live albums Denardo recorded with his father in 1969 and 1972. The first, Ornette at 12 (named after Denardo's age at the time of recording), finds the saxophonist leading his quartet through a performance at the Hearst Greek Amphitheater at the University of California, Berkeley in August of 1968. Joining him are bassist Charlie Haden and tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman. Here we find the elder Coleman during one of his most primal and exploratory periods playing not just alto sax, but also trumpet and violin. Though untrained on those instruments, he still lets loose, playing with unfettered glee on "Rainbows," his trumpet a puckish sparkler of sound. Similarly, Redman, framed by Haden's bowed bass squelch, unleashes a torrent of notes on "C.O.D." All the while, Denardo is skittering, responsive energy, bashing and sputtering at each improvisational line. Elsewhere, on "Bells and Chimes," Haden grounds the proceedings bowing a dark, heavy metal-sounding riff as Coleman and Redman spew red saxophone storm clouds overhead. An even more adept picture of the drummer can be heard on Crisis. Recorded roughly a year after Ornette at 12, the album showcases the group's performance at New York University. Augmenting the ensemble is the elder Coleman's longtime collaborator, pocket-trumpeter Don Cherry, whose distinctive, fractured melodicism helps further color the already vibrant group. His inclusion also adds gravitas, helping fill out the sound of the group, as heard on the opening "Broken Shadows," in which the band slowly lurches forward like an immense ocean liner entering port. In contrast, "Space Jungle" finds Denardo whacking away with spastic intensity as the horn players ride his wave with a group improv rife with serpentine harmolodic invention. There is even a nod to the group's burgeoning interest in various ethnic and world music traditions on the closing "Trouble in the East." The song begins with Cherry at the front like an avant-garde pied piper delivering a ferocious Indian flute solo. Soon, Coleman, Redman, and Haden join in, their dissonant tones caught in the tumult of Denardo's drumming and a cacophony of what sounds like tin pans, shakers, and bamboo sticks. These live albums document Coleman's further move away from musical form and his increasing embrace of free improvisation as a direct line to emotional and artistic expression. Ultimately, that expression has even more of an impact because of the presence of Denardo's intense, youthful exuberance. Matt Collar
Ornette At 12 (Impulse! AS-9178, rel. 1969)
1 C.O.D. 7:42
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
2 Rainbows 9:11
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
3 New York 8:30
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
4 Bells And Chimes 7:28
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
Crisis (Impulse! AS-9187, rel. 1972)
5 Broken Shadows 6:08
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
6 Comme Il Faut 14:34
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
7 Song For Ché 11:39
Written-By – Charlie Haden
8 Space Jungle 5:31
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
9 Trouble In The East 6:50
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
Credits :
Arranged By – Greg Adams
Bass – Melvin Davis
Drums – Harvey Mason
Guitar – David T. Walker
Piano, Organ – Jai Winding
Saxophone – Gary Herbig, Johnnie Bamont, Larry Williams
Trombone – Matt Finders, Nick Lane
Trumpet – Chuck Findley, Greg Adams
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