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Customer Reviews of Unity

Essential Organ Jazz
Every time I listen to this album I find it more and more incredible, not only for the caliber of the music, but the brilliant interplay between the artists. Larry Young, a Blue Note workhorse and common sit-in on various artist's records (guitarist Grant Green among others) plays some of the most creative, funky and percussive Hammond Organ I have ever heard in jazz music. His style shows strong contrast to fellow organist Jimmy Smith, whose style could be considered more traditional than Young's avant-garde. But this album would be nothing if not for the cast; Woody Shaw, the least-known member of the album but decidedly the most important, whose resume includes appearances on trumpet with jazz vets Horace Silver and Donald Byrd; Joe Henderson, whose sax playing history had included Kenny Dorham and Horace Silver; and Elvin Jones, one of the most incredible drummers in jazz even today, most well known for his collaborations with Coltrane. The jazz on the album is clearly not traditional. Young's style is strongly affected at this time in the mid-60's by R&B grooves, but he keeps much of his accompaniment based on jazz grounds. The highlights of the album would have to be Zoltan, the incredible first track (an excellent example of Shaw's unique songwriting abilities); The Moontrane, featuring an intricate rhythm and a killer drum solo from Jones; and Beyond All Limits, with its infectious fast paced beat and complicated structure. All tracks are simply brilliant: well played, fast paced and an overall intoxicating listen.

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A classic
This is often considered one of the highpoints of the Blue Note catalogue, & I certainly wouldn't disagree. Larry Young was one of the greatest of organists--"the Coltrane of the organ", as he's been called. Here he's joined by Joe Henderson on tenor, a very young Woody Shaw on trumpet, and Elvin Jones on drums; Young's generosity to up-and-coming musicians is shown in his turning over the main compositional focus to Shaw (then an unknown 22-year-old from Newark), whose tunes "Zoltan", "The Moontrane" and "Beyond All Limits" receive their debut recordings here. These are all superb, but perhaps the highlight is an organ-and-drums battle on "Monk's Dream", which elicits an ecstatic & yet perfectly logical solo from Young. Henderson, Shaw & Jones all turn in some of the most impressive work of their careers here--surely Henderson's solo that kicks off "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" deserves to be ranked among his best, for instance.

The only disappointment of this album, I suppose, is that it never received a followup. After this disc Young first swung in the direction of free jazz (the disappointingly shambolic _Of Love and Peace_) and then heavily commercially-oriented music (_Contrasts_ and _Heaven on Earth_). Neither venture was commercially or artistically successful; his best recordings after this point were for other leaders (Tony Williams, Miles Davis, etc.) in a fusion mode. Young died at the age of 37 in 1978 (of pneumonia, contracted while in hospital for routine surgery) before he could turn his career around--one of the greatest losses to the music in recent decades. Best to remember him by such discs as _Unity_, _Into Somethin'_ and the fine series of LPs he recorded with Grant Green. Perhaps someday if the record companies get smart they'll reissue _Double Exposure_, Young's last recording, a duo with Joe Chambers.

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A Perfect Album for so Many Reasons
This album is one of the most satisfying jazz albums I've ever bought. First off, it's a treat to hear the organ in such an up-front and wide-open setting; usually when we hear a B-3's sweet tones it is merely tapping out some cute seventh chords in the background of a blues jam. Larry Young is as unrestricted as any jazz musician can sound within the bounds of a chord progression here, playing lines as melodic and purposeful as Freddie Hubbard or as emotional and forceful as Joe Henderson, who also plays in top form on the date in question, within the same solo, all the while holding down a solid bass line with his left hand so masterfully that many have been led in ignorance to think there is a bass player on the recording (there isn't). Woody Shaw, often hailed as one of the most underrated soloists in post-bop, shows his true talent here as well, placing his unorthodox yet fluid phrases in all of the tunes from his own 60's avant-garde flavored "Moontrane" to the very standard standard, "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise," all with the same level of energy and sheer emotion that is par for the course on this fantastic album. So, the soloing is great. Really great.

Next order of business: Elvin Freaking Jones! Elvin passed away recently, and I'm sure many people are looking for his most characteristic and celebrated recordings to appreciate what a great talent he was and what an impact he had on jazz drumming and on jazz as a whole. Unity is as good a place to start as any. Though he was obviously most famous for his work in thepurpose-driven John Coltrane Quartet, he displayed hisunique polyrhythmically swinging style on a number of records as a sideman including this one and other perennials such as Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Sonny Rollins' Live at the Village Vanguard. It is a joy to hear him communicating with less familiar musicians with the same empathy as he did in the Coltrane quartet. His solos are fantastic as well, with his free, over-the-barline style which often displayed itself in open-ended solos turning up here inside the boundaries of extended form ("Monk's Dream") and in four bar phrases ("Zoltan"). Even within the restriction of specific solo lengths, Elvin plays with the same freedom and motive-oriented melodicism as always.

And last but not least: song selection. No Larry Young originals here, but three by Shaw and one by Henderson which are wonderful new (at the time) compositions that have become those type of "standards" that get played from time to time but aren't in the Real Book and don't exactly get called at wedding gigs. The very Monk-ish "Monk's Dream" is a Larry and Elvin duet here, a very good choice and a nice variation for the album's general flow. As said earlier, the standard "Softly..." is treated with the same improvisational attitude as the more modern tunes. Great selections.

Okay, if my bombastic ramblings communicate nothing else to you, please hear this last line: buy this album!