Despite the renewed interest in organ combos that came about in the late 1980s and was still happening in the late 1990s, very few young hard boppers were actually taking up the organ. Apart from
Joey DeFrancesco and a few others, the ones benefiting the most from this focus on the Hammond B-3 were older greats like
Jimmy Smith,
Jack McDuff,
Charles Earland and
Jimmy McGriff. Also known for his piano playing, Young Lion
Davell Crawford was only 21 when he played the organ exclusively on
The B-3 and Me. This soul-jazz/hard bop CD showed the New Orleans native to have a Smith-based approach to the instrument, and there isn't much to set
B-3 apart from the many similar organ-combo recordings that had come out 30 and 35 years earlier. But while
Crawford (whose competent backing includes tenor saxman
Clarence Johnson III and drummer
Shannon Powell) won't win many awards for innovation, he's likable and consistently swinging. Pianist
Henry Butler (also a Crescent City native) has a nice spot on "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," and singer
Germaine Bazzle shows how exhilarating a combination jazz and R&B can be when she tears into "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone." From blues-drenched originals like "Uptown" and "The Cat" to interpretations of "Stormy Weather" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" (originally a country song), this is a decent, if conventional, release. ~ Alex Henderson