Unity

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About Unity

Product Description The album that put Larry Young and Woody Shaw on the jazz map, this exciting and inventive session with Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones. Churning rhythms, challenging ground breaking compositions and brilliant solo work make this album a classic that exerted great, uncredited influence on the next generation of jazz artists. And one of the most requested Blue Note reissues! Amazon.com Recorded in 1965, in the afterglow of avant-garde jazz's first significant wave, Unity proved what organist Larry Young's Blue Note debut, Into Somethin', foreshadowed. Young had been a straightforward protégé of Jimmy Smith prior to his Blue Note years, and he later went full-tilt into fusion, eventually joining Tony Williams's Lifetime for their rightly named debut, Emergency. But here Young dug into an exploratory groove that fed in part off the Hammond B-3 tradition and in part off the pulse-oriented rhythmic developments then occupying Cecil Taylor and others. That said, the tunes are all keeled on even tempos, with thoughtful, tight soloing from Joe Henderson and a young Woody Shaw. With drummer Elvin Jones powering the quartet, the music cruises along, but Young's free-flying organ is the most striking point, with its fall-apart deconstructions and its architecturally complex solos and melody statements. More than anything, this recording helped clarify how relevant the B-3 was for the new breed of jazzers. This Rudy Van Gelder remaster improves the sound, both brightening it and bolstering the low end. Also added are a couple of great photos and a new liner essay. --Andrew Bartlett