Great album by an underrated player.
Brilliant album by altoist Jimmy Woods consisting of material from two sessions with two different line-ups. I hadn’t listened to Woods until quite recently and got hooked on this album. He was a wonderful player with a great technique and quite a unique style which was fiery but very lyrical. He had some great ideas but he doesn’t seem to have recorded a lot, which is surprising to me considering his apparent talent. He did two albums as a leader, both on Contemporary. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for the other one, which has a killer line-up.
Very happy to see Gary Peacock in one of the line-ups. He is probably in my top 5 when it comes to double bassists in jazz. He had such a great tone on the instrument, very natural and powerful. His technique was up there with LaFaro for me. A master.
The sound on this original mono pressing is what you’d expect from a Roy DuNann recording; top notch.
Favorite pick is probably “Not Yet”, penned by the leader. Peacock has a wonderful solo on that one. “Roma”, another Woods original, is also a favorite.