The Best of Brother Jack McDuff & The Big Soul Band +[ Silk & Soul, Walk on By]

Brother Jack McDuff - The Best of Brother Jack McDuff & The Big Soul Band - Prestige PR 7771, Blue Trident Label, Stereo

Brother Jack McDuff - Organ
Red Holloway - Tenor Sax
George Benson - Guitar on A3, A5, B1, B2
Joe Dukes - Drums
Pat Martino - Guitar on A1,A2,B3, B4
[uncredited] - Strings & Vocal groups

Big Band Arranged and Conducted by Benny Golson

Recorded - [not listed on sleeve, but according to major Prestige discographies - A3, A5, B1, B2: July 1964, Stockholm, Sweden, - A4, B5: early 1965, Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ - A1,A2,B3, B4: February 1966, New York City]

Production - [various]
Cover design/photo - [uncredited]

Released - c 1969? [all tracks previously issued; A3,A5,B1,B2 issued on 'Silk and Soul' (PR 7404), A1,A2,B3, B4 issued on 'Walk on By' (PR 7476), A4 issued on 'The Midnight Sun' (PR 7529), B5 issued on 'I Got a Woman' (PR 7642)]

Brother Jack McDuff was the biggest selling and most influential soul jazz artist on Prestige. However, I've so far hesitated to give him full coverage on this blog (not for musical reasons - Brother Jack grooves!) as most of his material/LP sides was thankfully extensively reissued by Fantasy/OJC on CD and is readily available digitally if you go looking in the right places....Of course, Fantasy's reissue approach was flawed/problematic, splitting up McDuff's various LP sides through rather inane 'Legends of Acid Jazz, 2 in 1 CD compilations, haphazardly sequenced, and packaged with little historical documentation/correct session details. I happen to feel that the original LP sides must remain sacrosanct as historical documents, and that the music first and foremost must be listened to the way the artist originally presented it. Moreover, Fantasy's approach inexplicably missed 2 tracks in McDuff's Prestige discography according to this extremely helpful organissimo. board discussion.

Given just my comments on historical integrity, it's perhaps ironic that I'm going ahead and posting just such a compilation - The Best of Brother Jack McDuff & The Big Soul Band! However, this is a credible and rather scarce original Prestige era collection released around 1969 with its own number in the 7000 series. Reading the uncredited liner notes, you can tell that there was some thought put into assembling and sequencing this collection of the best of Brother Jack's big band collaborations with Benny Golson from 1964-66. These collaborations spread across The Dynamic Jack McDuff (PR 7323), Prelude (PR 7333), and most of Silk and Soul (PR 7404) and Walk on By (PR 7476), I feel are rather underrated by most jazz fans and therefore forgotten by history. It's a shame as these sides groove like nobody's business, and represent the immense potential of adapting the hammond soul jazz groove as soloist to an orchestral big band setting....You can tell that McDuff was a big deal at Prestige at the time as these big band dates didn't come cheap, something notable for a label famous for its thriftiness. I guess a similar approximation to the sound that McDuff and Golson were crafting were Jimmy Smith's early efforts at Verve after leaving Blue Note. But I don't think Jimmy was best served by Verve's blatant commercial-pop orientation /schmaltz strings sound (Wes Montgomery suffered as well - blame Creed Taylor I say) .... Oliver Nelson's work with Shirley Scott at Impulse (posted on this very blog earlier, look for it) was a bit more successful.

Anyway, I chose this particular side as it gives you the best of McDuff and Golson from the 2 sides - Silk and Soul and Walk on By, that I feel were worst served in the CD era ( I include links for these reconstructed sides below as reference for how these collaborations were sequenced and presented originally) . A couple of notes on some standout sides - A2, "Walk on By" the cover of the Burt Bachrach tune made famous by Dionne Warwick is so sublime and perfect! It's also begging to be sampled... A3, Lexington Avenue Line cut in Stockholm by an uncredited orchestra of 35 musicians sounds so grand. And of course, A5 "If I Ever Leave You", also cut in Stockholm with an uncredited string/vocal group is one of the elusive McDuff sides so far unreleased on CD. So an immensely enjoyable catchy and soulful side with excellent fidelity from the original Prestige stereo vinyl.

Get it
or alternatively Silk &Soul or Walk on By for a more historically authentic listening experience!