Kathleen Loves Music

Willis Jackson
with Pat Martino
Single Action

Produced by Fred Seibert

1. Evergreen
2. Bolita
3. Makin’ Whoopee
4. You Are My Sunshine
5. Hittin’ The Numbers
6. Single Action
7. Evergreen (outtake)

Willis Jackson: tenor saxophone
Pat Martino: guitar
Carl Wilson: organ
Jimmy Lewis: bass
Yusef Ali: drums
Ralph Dorsey: percussion

Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.

Less a producer than actually a recording supervisor (my credit on this album) I arrived at our first session together with virtually no information on what we were recording or who was playing. Willis was tough and a little paranoid so this situation played out during the three or four sessions we did together. I’d never heard any of his music (it wasn’t cool enough within the jazzbo circles [Read more…]

John Coltrane had become a star in the Miles Davis’ bands in the 50s. Listeners, even Miles, sometimes “complained that Coltrane played too much for too long. But it was the long, feverish solos that became the pillars of Coltrane’s legacy.” As a young guy on college radio I embraced this stuff without truly loving it all that much.

Ballads changed all that for me and thousands of other listeners. Signed to a new label, Impulse Records, his producers successfully showcased Coltrane as the revolutionary firebrand while holding on to the straight jazzers who came along from Miles. I know it worked like crazy for me.

Romantic, even ecstatic, this 1962 album introduced me to classic jazz in the most perfect way. Coltrane shows his complete mastery of the form, in the guise of a beautiful song, played very straight without a ton of obvious improvisation. Every track is worthwhile, but the one here composed by Jimmy [Read more…]