As
the Jazz Crusaders recorded often on Pacific Jazz throughout the 1960s, boiling down that output to a mere nine songs cannot adequately represent the best material by the band. For the casual fan (of either jazz or the group), though, it's an hour of good music, displaying the trombone-sax combination that set them apart from most other jazz ensembles on both original compositions and covers of tunes by
Wes Montgomery and
Jackie McLean. Spanning 1961-66, this demonstrates their facility with both hard bop ("The Young Rabbits," "Congolese Sermon") and songs with soulful hooks that gave them crossover appeal to some of the pop audience ("New Time Shuffle" and "Freedom Sound," both written by
Joe Sample). ~ Richie Unterberger