Selection: Of Love and Peace (320 kbps MP3)
Artists
Eddie Gale (trumpet) James Spaulding (alto saxophone, flute) Herbert Morgan (tenor saxophone) Larry Young (organ) Wilson Moorman III, Jerry Thomas (drums) recorded Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 28, 1966
Music
Larry Young: soul jazz meets hard bop meets avant garde. When you first tune in to Young, you find yourself inevitably looking for a reference point, an anchor to understand the music, which hearing the Hammond is inevitably Jimmy Smith. Young set out to reconcile the angry “new thing” with other jazz traditions, and in the process was probably one of the few who succeeded in shaking off the spectre of Jimmy Smith, stabbing the keys of the Hammond B3, to death. I see it like this:
Young’s trademark was a simmering modal backdrop for blistering solos which stretch the boundaries of the harmonic centre. Eddie Gale, fresh from working with Cecil Taylor, unsettles any funk-expectations. The experimental feel is strengthened by the unusual choice of two drummers, who together create forward motion in an otherwise free improvisation.
Young’s previous Blue Note title Unity (which I haven’t suceeded in finding other than on the evil silver disk) is considered Young’s greatest , but Of Love and Peace comes a close second. Despite its title, the music offers musically very little sentiment of Love or Peace.
AB Spellman’s liner notes devote considerable attention to Youngs’ adoption of Sunni Islam ( Muslim name Khaled Yasin) to which Young attributes “inner peace and accelerated growth”. Sounds more Californian self-help to me, with a little Maharishi Yogi thrown in, but perhaps the world looked a little different place in the ’60s.
Young’s earlier career included several Blue Note titles with Grant Green, some titles of his own, in the early ’70s recording with Tony William’s Lifetime, electric Miles Davis, fusion-genre John McLaughlin and Lenny White, until he died unexpectedly in 1978.
Vinyl: BN 4242 mono, VAN GELDER , 1966 NY Liberty Blue Note, no ear, none expected.
Fascinating surreal cover in the manner of Jean Cocteau, La Belle et La Bete, meets flower-power, credited to Reid Miles.
Collector’s Corner
West London record store, a surprising item given the heavy footfall of London’s few remaining record stores. But that’s what happens. Five visits, nothing, then suddenly an interesting find. A lot more rewarding than being topped on Ebay by dealers with a budget close to the GDP of Belgium.
Cracked record but it happened again today – second-placed by someone with a score in thousands, all records, I assume a dealer. I have a feeling, not based on any evidence, that score in thousands indicates a professional dealer in records, but who knows, it might indicate someone with a huge appetite for acquisition. I am curious. As a reader of this blog you are probably a bidder or seller on Ebay. What’s your Ebay score? Not the exact number, I don’t want to identify anybody, just in broad bands.
If you have never bought or sold on Ebay simply indicate “none”. That in itself will be interesting
It gives me an idea how much interest there is in following happenings on Ebay.
LJC (300-ish)
LondonJazzCollector 
My introduction to collectable album is not early, but my love for music , and particulary jazz, is fron the eighties…..In My opinion Larry Young was a very modernist in his intruments, if you think to some Abercrombie-Dan Wall works (30 years later) you discovered…that nothin was discovered! Many thanks for your posts, i have a NYC Unity original album , and a Libery Contrasts (that is the third best album if we considered this one the second…into something is just a bit less modernist then other works……but all are welcomes
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While my ebay score is between 400-499, it certainly has been trending down lately as the price of collectibles exceeds that of a new hotel building in Sochi.
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Nice album. It was one of the last of the ‘NY USA’ era. I think my copy (also mono) has the NY labels and NY 23 sleeve – will have to check.
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Thanks. I’ve played the selected track a couple of times now. It offers quite a bleak soundscape with limited reference points, although the organ and drums do create some limited notion of movement, structure and direction. I won’t be getting excited if I come across this disc in a crate, but I will revisit Unity, which I have had on CD for a while and keep meaning to play again.
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I agree that Into Somethin is tops. It is also one of my favorite BN album covers
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Into Somethin´with Sam Rivers and Grant Green and Elvin Jones is my absolute favorite Larry Young Blue Note record! Young and Green stay on soul jazz triangle side whilst Rivers fills the corner of avantgarde and hard bop. Even though the chemistry works and it is amazing how groovy the outcome.
Furthest out but great album is Lawrence of Newark somewhere between fusion and soul jazz though it´s not BN.
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Following your enthusiasm, I am about to order a new copy of ‘Into Somethin’ from a German seller on Musicstack.com – watch this space!
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After a week’s delay the LP finally arrived and, yes, I am enjoying what is basically a very accessible bop recording. I paid just over £13 for this – a new Blue Note reissue – (including postage from Germany) and have no regrets whatsoever. I could have paid £100 to a Danish seller or £200 to a UK seller both of whom allege they have original copies from 1964 in mint condition. Worth it? – I very much doubt so. (Please LJC will you start a thread on ‘recent vinyl reissues’ so we can share our experiences?)
Into Somethin’ dates from 1964, Unity from 1965 and Of Love and Peace from 1966. Into Somethin’ is positively gentle compared to the later two recordings. I listened to Unity again this afternoon and disliked it less than I had remembered, but Into Somethin’ will remain my preferred Larry Young recording for some time I suspect.
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More Hammond on a Blue Note vinyl. This is for me what heroin is for Charlie Parker.
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