Sweet and Soulful Sounds, from 1962, is a most atypical record for
Bobby Timmons. Long thought of only as a funky piano player in the style that
Ramsey Lewis would later make commercially successful,
Timmons could also play prettily, as he does on this ballad-heavy set. There's a little funk here; the up-tempo "Another Live One" sounds like a potential
Cannonball Adderley hit (
Timmons, bassist
Sam Jones, and drummer
Roy McCurdy were all once and future
Adderley accompanists). But for the most part,
Timmons keeps his cool, showing a very strong
Bud Powell influence throughout. (Actually, the two solo tracks, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" and a meditative "God Bless the Child," sound as if
Timmons had been listening to
Bill Evans' solo records, as the latter in particular has the same rhythmically loose, melodically free style.) The highlights are the three standards,
Richard Rodgers' "The Sweetest Sounds," a relaxed and swinging take on
Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," and a version of
Oscar Hammerstein and
Jerome Kern's "Why Was I Born?" that turns it from a show tune into a despondent blues. This is an unusual record for
Bobby Timmons, but a great one.