Big John Patton: Let ’em Roll (Tone Poet Vinyl 180g)

Contents

1. Let ‘Em Roll
2. Latona
3. The Shadow Of Your Smile
4. The Turnaround
5. Jakey
6. One Step Ahead

The title of Wayne Shorter’s eleventh Blue Note album was no accident. For on “Schizophrenia,” the saxophonist embarked on a breathtaking ridge walk with an all-star sextet in 1967. “This music straddles the line between post-bop and free jazz,” opined Stephen Thomas on Erlewine on AllMusic, “it’s rooted in post-bop but knows what’s going on on the other side of the line. A few years later, Shorter would cross that line, but “Schizophrenia” crackles with tension as he and his colleagues try to balance the two extremes.

Kansas City-born dynamic Hammond-B3 organist Big John Patton recorded a series of excellent soul-jazz albums for Blue Note in the 1960s. For the most part, he was heard on them in the standard lineup of organ, guitar, and drums, plus amplification by horns. He only deviated from this scheme in 1965 on the terrific album “Let ‘Em Roll,” on which he collaborated with Bobby Hutcherson. The vibraphonist seizes the opportunity here to give Patton’s music more depth and structure, as well as a more modern twist.