Hank Crawford - Memphis, Ray and a Touch of Moody '1997

Tracks list

Tracklist

CD1:

More Soul (1960)

01. Boos Tune (6:42)
02. Angel Eyes (6:35)
03. Four Five Six (5:09)
04. The Story (4:43)
05. Dat Dere (4:54)
06. Misty (5:34)
07. Sister Sadie (4:40)

From the Heart (1962)

08. Dont Cry Baby (4:23)
09. Sweet Cakes (3:40)
10. Youve Changed (3:20)
11. Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand (3:54)
12. Sherri (4:40)
13. The Peeper (3:10)
14. But on the Other Hand (5:04)
15. Stoney Lonesome (5:44)
16. What Will I Tell My Heart (5:12)

CD2:

Soul of the Ballad (1963)

01. Blueberry Hill (3:25)
02. I Left My Heart in San Francisco (2:45)
03. Stormy Weather (3:18)
04. Sweet Slumber (2:53)
05. If I Didnt Care (2:47)
06. Stardust (3:58)
07. Any Time (2:43)
08. Whispering Grass (2:47)
09. Time Out for Tears (2:58)
10. Im Gettin Sentimental over You (3:21)
11. There Goes My Heart (3:16)
12. Have a Good Time (2:56)

Dig These Blues (1965)

13. Dig These Blues (4:34)
14. Dont Get Around Much Anymore (5:03)
15. Banana Head (3:00)
16. H.C. Blues (2:50)
17. Its a Sin (2:37)
18. Hollywood Blues (3:20)
19. Baby Wont You Please Come Home (5:47)
20. New Blues (4:25)
21. Bluff City Blues (3:51)

Hank Crawford, a solid baritone player and Ray Charles’s musical director
from 1958-64, already had his own sound on alto sax by 1960 when he started his
own Atlantic recording career (quite a feat in the wake of Bird and the dawn of
Cannonball). During the next decade, he produced a consistent catalog of soulful
sets for Atlantic, almost all well worth hearing.
This excellent two-disc set brings back four (!) of the best and earliest of
Crawford’s long out-of-print Atlantic LPs: his debut, More Soul (1960);
his third, From the Heart (1961); his fourth, Soul of the Ballad (1963); and his
sixth, Dig These Blues (1964). It’s a remarkably cohesive, swinging set
of first-rate soul jazz, blues and soulful ballads.
More Soul starts it all off with a straight-ahead, fun-filled set of seven solid
swingers (even Misty swings here). Crawford’s well-constructed septet
features an alto/tenor/baritone/two trumpet frontline. David Fathead Newman
shines on tenor, Leroy Cooper grinds on baritone and the trumpeters take several
nice spots. But Crawford testifies: he jumps, soars, swoops and glides, never
resorting to pretense or showiness. He means what he says and it sounds good.
The same group returns for the great From the Heart , a slowed-down, low-down
set of nine blues. Guitarist Sonny Green turns out on three tracks, doing
Crawford’s sound up Basie style. Crawford, covering soulful standards
like Dat Dere and Sister Sadie on his previous outing, explores more of his own
blues here: Sweet Cakes, Sherri, The Peeper and Stoney Lonesome.
Soul of the Ballad is a sax-and-strings affair that seems a little out of place
here. Nevertheless, Crawford invests warm gusto in a set of too-familiar
ballads, arranged by Marty Paich in the same country-soul style he was helping
Ray Charles popularize at the time. The excellent Dig These Blues returns
Crawford to more familiar ground, digging deep in on some good blues, and
Crawford sitting in on piano for the noir blues of Bluff City Blues and The
Crazy Saloon.
Memphis, Ray and a Touch of Moody, despite its odd title (referring to
Crawford’s birthplace, his musical benefactor and, presumably, the
saxist’s affinity for James Moody), offers a satisfying portrait of one
of jazz’s most soulful alto players and a heaping helping of delicious
soul jazz at its best. Recommended.~Douglas Payne

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