Mssr_Renard I initially gave this album 3,5* but am inclined to give it a 4*-rating and I want to explain why.

At first I thought this album was rather tame, and because I like blues and hard rock, I was used to growling Hammonds (Uriah Heep for instance). I already was familiar with jazz-organ through Soulive, but found that band a bit on the tame side aswell.

But I was fooled. Although the guitar and hammond are clean (no effects) they are not tame. The quartet featured here know how to swing and play a tight and infectious groove. Of course if you have Evin Jones, here the sole rhythmsection, you know you've got a groove going on.

The three soloists (Young, Green and Rivers) are from different worlds but here they play the blues. Four compositions by Young and one composition by Green. Green's Plaza de Toros is in my opinion the best composition on this record, and the organ-solo seems to go on forever, wich is great, because I cannot get enough of this song.

Although Green, Young and Rivers play very well and have outstanding solos the most prominent player here must be Elvin. His cymbal work is simply marvelous. The bell on this ride-cymbal is what makes this album so addictive.

I have no idea if this line-up is featured on any other record (I'll have to look into it), but this quartet is one-of-a-kind and to my recollection only Soulive (with Sam Kininger on saxophone) have done something similar.

Now I have the task to dig more deep into Young's discography and while at it, I can dig deeper into Green's discography aswell.

Steve Wyzard TAKE A TRIP

"One thing about Larry Young is that he really is an organist. He knows that instrument, and furthermore, unlike some organ players in jazz, Larry never gets in your way. On the contrary, he keeps building in and around what you are doing while always listening so that his comping is always a great help." Mother Ship is a miraculous album, and due to its posthumous release has been continually underrated and underplayed. The above quote, from Grant Green (who does not play on Mother Ship) comes from this album's liner notes, which also take pains to portray Young as a Coltrane acolyte. That might be overselling the issue just a bit, but when you hear this album, you'll understand how the connection has been made.

Of course, the real problem with Mother Ship's reputation is that it will always live in the shadow of Young's Unity album, which the all-powerful consensus has determined is Larry's greatest. It's a real temptation to compare the two albums due to their common instrumentation: organ / trumpet / tenor sax / drums. Yet on Mother Ship, Lee Morgan's trumpet performance is much freer than anything else you've heard him play. Tenorist Herbert Morgan (no relation) and drummer Eddie Gladden are both compatriots of Young's from the Newark, NJ area. While far lesser-known than the legends who performed on Unity, both play up a storm on this album.

While a number of Blue Note's "LT-series" records are almost compilations of "odds and ends" from various sessions, Mother Ship is a full 41-minute album recorded in one day in 1969. The ground-breaking "Mother Ship", the bluesy riffing of "Street Scene", the 3-part long lines of "Visions", the epic (12:51) "Trip Merchant", and the sassy samba of "Love Drops" were all composed by Larry Young. If there's one extremely slight letdown to this album, it's the track sequencing. Whoever decided to follow up the boundary-pushing powerful chords and explosions of sound in "Trip Merchant" with the playful "Love Drops" was just being disrespectful. Wait until you hear Larry's and Lee's lengthy, mind-blowing solos on this track. Elsewhere Herbert Morgan may occasionally remind you of the one-and-only Wayne Shorter.

After Mother Ship, Young would leave Blue Note and go on to the Tony Williams Lifetime, the career move for which he's best-known today. Sadly, neither he nor Lee Morgan would live to see this album's release in 1980. While it's far less easy to find a copy of Mother Ship these days, I strongly urge anyone with an interest in Larry Young to pick this album up. The performances and compositions cry out for acclaim and deserve to be just as well-known as those on Unity.

Rokukai Larry Young continues to push the envelope on this hot piece of avantprogfunkjazz. For those of you who aren't acquainted with Young's work, he's been described as "the Coltrane of the organ" high praise indeed. Starting as a Jimmy Smith follower, he slowly began branching further into the sonic unknown, becoming a free and avant-jazz pioneer. His albums in the mid sixties are difficult, rewarding, challenging listens that established the Hammond B-3 as a true force in the avant game. He further cemented his legacy on Bitches Brew and in Lifetime, a trio with John McLaughlin and Tony Williams.

Fuel, on the other hand, is not difficult to listen to. At least for me. Larry never ran with the in-crowd, and in the '70's he began hanging with fringe musicians, young hungry artists willing to challenge the boundaries of sonic enjoyment. Larry was turned on and influenced by the psychedelic and funk/soul/r&b sounds of the day, and incorporates them into his avant-funk-jazz hybrid.

It's definitely not the most polished funkjazz I've heard, but man does Larry sound progressive in spots. On "I Ching (Book of Changes)" and "New York Electric Street Music" you'd swear Rick Wakeman was playing. Mini Moog, Clavinet, B-3, Piano--Young plays it all. (Keep and ear out for Larry Coryell, who makes a "special appearance")

The appeal of the album lies with Young's ability to stay on the fringes of popular jazz. He's definitely less subdued among his organ contemporaries, like Don Patterson, Jack McDuff, John Patton, Reuben Wilson, Jimmy Smith et al, and the funk here is true. Young refuses to play anything straight, and for me that equals a refreshing and satisfying album. I've been playing this record at parties for years and I always get the "What's that Great Music?" line.

4+ on my scale.

Sean Trane Often considered as Larry Young’s most definitive work of the 70’s, Lawrence Of NewArabiark is another classic JR/F album of the early-70’s. Recently signed to the small perception label, Young amagalmated a bunch of NY-scene musos, of which the better-known (by far) is James Blood Ulmer on guitar. The present album is quite a departure of his previous albums that I’ve heard

As the liner notes, most people have a hard time equating the organ, and more so the Hammond organ as a pure jazz instrument, and while people like Jimmy Smith did a lot for it, most if the organ sounds in jazz that I’m aware of are in jazz –rock or in 60’s British RnB. Of course exceptions like Larry Young confirms this trend, the very case of this organist is also very unusual because of the extraordinary sounds he extracts from his B3. For those familiar with Tony Williams’ Lifetime or McL’s Devotion, you have already got a good idea of Young’s possibilities.

But with the present LoN, you’ve got another thing coming, because the organ is right up front (sometimes mixed a bit loud to my tastes), while the Latin percussions add much flavour. The spacey Sunshine Fly away might sound a bit as iif it was originally intended for a Lifetime album, the Khalid Of Space opens super-funkily, before veering African or Saharan in a long improv-filled groove, where Diedre Johnson’s cello plays an important role. The very calm (at first) flipside-opening Saudia and the anecdotic but much louder Alive give the album a bit of variety, but the jumpy Quietness track is the last highlight of the album, with some solo brief interventions somewhat reminiscent of Miles’ Bitches Brew trumpet.

If you’re familiar with the awesome Caravanserai of Santana, no doubt you’ll hear much of that influence in the present, not least in the Arabian or Saharan artwork picture, indicative of the camel caravan of Santana’s album. Soooooo, Larry Young influenced by Gregg Rollie?? Sounds a bit unlikely (Young’s much longer presence in the circuit would indicate the opposite), but it’s also a bit present in the compositions.

One of the slight negative remarks I might have against LoN is the flipside’s brevity, a mere 16 minutes as opposed to the 21 minutes of the A-side: I might have appreciated another ”tune”. Yes, the Hammond can be a jazz instrument, but the present album makes it somewhat a psychedelic stretch to make it a standard jazz instrument, and it’s probably all the better anyway. So, LoN could be filled next to Devotion, Caravanserai and Emergency… quite a prestigious neighbourhood, really.

js Even by Larry Young standards this is a strange album, which is to say this is a very very strange album, but also a very good one. There seems to be two different styles present on this album. Half of the songs are in a mystical psychedelic African fusion style, and the other half seem to be Young's unique take on minimalism, with the different instruments in his large ensemble playing repeating riffs in forceful, and sometimes almost chaotic fashion. The unifying factor throughout this album is a very low-fi production and purposefully sloppy mixing that has instruments at strangely mismatched volumes. Always one to chart his own course, Larry seems to be trying to strip any gloss or sheen off his music by not allowing any sort of post production work. On a couple of tunes you can actually hear the tape machine start up mid-jam while the band is already playing. Trying to describe this music is a bit tough, but let's start with a mix consisting of a low-fi version of Santana's Caravanserai, some of Sun Ra's African grooves, Terry Riley's rock-minimalism experiments with John Cale, Miles' Bitches Brew with it's constantly noodling instruments bubbling up from the background and possibly Keith Emerson's distorted B3 extended psychedelic jams with the Nice. All throughout this album Larry's Hammond B3 is run through a variety of reverbs and distortion devices, and he constantly manipulates the tone bars creating shifting psychedelic sounds that can instantly rush from a shimmering whisper to a full on roar.

This album isn't for everybody, I think the lack of production values would be a big turn off for many, but for me the rough sound is part of this album's appeal. Larry's solos on here are powerful and creative as he proves he ranks high with the very best jazz fusion Hammond B3 artists. His massive ensemble is equally talented as the percussionists play hypnotic poly-rhythms and the saxophonists create counterpoints to Larry's bold melodies.