This 1966 date by
Duke Pearson with an octet was originally issued by Atlantic. Reissued by Collectables, this is
Pearson in full soul-jazz mode, driven deeply by the blues, with an all-star band (not all members play on all tunes): drummer
Mickey Roker;
Harold Vick on soprano;
James Spaulding on flute and alto; bassist
Bob Cranshaw; trumpeter
Johnny Coles; tenor
George Coleman; guitarist
Gene Bertoncini; and
Pearson on piano and celeste. Most of these tunes start out delicately, almost like chamber jazz (nearly
MJQ style), moving around on small melodic figures. "The Fakir" begins with a tender, gentle flute solo by
Spaulding, and uproots itself by turning into a massive Latin-style groover based on the rhythmic middle of "My Favorite Things." "Prairie Dog" opens with the horns playing a slow, drawling blues that
Pearson fills with his piano. It's a re-visioning of "I'm An Old Cowhand" morphed into a blues.
Joe Henderson's "Soulin'" is exactly that: a strutting blues, where
Coleman digs deep into the nasty edge of his horn, and
Pearson's changes are short, choppy, percussive. The reading of "Angel Eyes" that closes the set is so utterly sophisticated in its arrangement, it's like
Pearson telling the band to lay nothing all the time, as the melody floats in after a gorgeous little rhythmic pattern played by the section, it finds its charm in an airy counterpoint and with beautiful soloing from
Bertoncini,
Coles' muted trumpet, and
Coleman. This is as fine as any date
Pearson released for Atlantic, and grooves all the way through, seamlessly. ~ Thom Jurek