Continuing my explorations of the Strata-East catalogue and I seem to discover a new gem on a regular basis. This is one of them. Mississippi born trombonist Dick Griffin is the leader and he is joined by a stellar cast of sidemen in Sam Rivers on tenor, soprano and flute, Cecil McBee on double bass, Freddie Waits on drums, Warren Smith on vibes and percussion and Leopoldo F. Fleming on congo, bells and percussion.
The music ranges from spiritual to light-hearted melodic soulfulness to bursts of the avant-garde. I find this album intriguing in many ways. The style of Griffin, who I hadn’t listened to before, paired with two of my favorites Rivers and McBee, is an interesting proposition.
Trombone is an instrument I appreciated in the early days, but maybe not fully embraced. But it has been exciting for me now for a good number of years, listening to players like Moncur, Ranelin, Rudd and now Griffin.
Favourite tune on the album is the last one on the second side, the feathery, latin-tinged ”Come Be With Me”, which features an outstanding solo by Rivers on soprano sax. I would go as far as to say this solo is probably my favorite soprano sax solo by any artist from any era. So full of passion, lyricism, warmth, romanticism and virtuoso technique. Can listen to it over and over again.
This is perhaps an under the radar Strata-East title, but what a gem. Check it out if you’re unfamiliar.