John Wright - Nice 'N' Tasty [CD Rip]

John Wright - Nice 'N' Tasty - Prestige 7197 - Japanese CD Reissue, VICJ-41892

John Wright - Piano
Wendell Marshall - Bass
J.C Hard - Drums

Recorded - November 8, 1960, Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Produced by Esmond Edwards
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Cover Photo - Esmond Edwards
Cover Design - Deanna Cohen

Released - 1961? (This reissue February 27, 2007)

This is quite a fascinating rarity. John Wright recorded 5 nice piano trio sides on Prestige from 1960-62 and then promptly dropped off the jazz recording radar. A Chicago contemporary of Ahmad Jamal ,Ramsey Lewis , the late John Young, King Fleming, Junior Mance , Muhal Richard Abrams , Jodie Christian and to an extent also the late Andrew Hill and Herbie Hancock (both transplanted to New York and Blue Note Records, but still essentially Chicago pianists), Wright's style is distinguished by a heavy blues and gospel influence, and a gentle approach to ballads that even touches on the Bill Evans-ish . Wright is still amazingly active today around Chicagoland -despite him now being blind - here's documentation of a 2008 concert and a very recent September 2009 appearance at the Hyde Park jazz festival. I think as indicated by the title of his first Prestige side '"South Side Soul" (cut ironically in New Jersey!) , Wright is the quintessential Chicago soul jazz/groove pianist. Others are perhaps much better known, more accomplished in terms of a discography and went national, later international (i.e. Jamal, Lewis, Hancock) - but Wright remains irrevocably and firmly tied to the local and to Chicago.

I've always wanted to feature Wright on this blog as an example of some of the striking diversity of the Chicago jazz/hard bop/soul jazz piano trio scene, but his Prestige sides are so difficult to track down on the original vinyl and have become pricey collector bait, that I had to forgo Wright. The previously alluded to " South Side Soul" (PR 7190, 8/60) and his last side "Mr Soul "(PR 7233, 4/62 ) are readily available and circulate widely off early 90s OOP Fantasy/OJC CD rips, look for them - but Wright's subsequent Prestige output, including "Makin' Out" (PR 7212, 6/61, a trio plus horn date) and "The Last Amen" (NJ 8322, 12/61) are just impossible to obtain in any available form, be it analogue or digital (particularly "The Last Amen" vinyl, only pressed once in 1965 on a Prestige subsidiary of New Jazz, which is somewhat of a holy grail for Prestige enthusiasts).

However, I got lucky several weeks ago and although I dislike CDs for this most part, this is a nice clean transfer of "Nice N Tasty", (PR 7197, 11/60) Wright's second trio side on Prestige that I acquired off a very difficult to find CD and now recently OOP from a Japanese contact. This side sounds ever so slight on a first listen, but it rewards the listener on close and subsequent listenings. Quite profound, and beautiful at times - John Wright could certainly benefit from a revival of interest in his work outside of very narrow jazz vinyl collectors' circles. I post this CD in that spirit.
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