CD1
Out of the Forrest
1. Bolo Blues
2. I Cried For You (Now It’s Your Turn To Cry Over Me)
3. I’ve Got a Right to Cry
4. This Can’t Be Love
5. By the River Saint Marie
6. Yesterdays
7. Crash Program
8. That’s All
Jimmy Forrest – tenor sax
Joe Zawinul – Piano
Tommy Potter – Bass
Clarence Johnston - Drums
Sit Down and Relax with Jimmy Forrest
9. Tuxedo Junction
10. Organ Grinder’s Swing
11. Moonglow
12. Tin Tin Deo
13. Rocks in My Bed
14. The Moon Was Yellow
Jimmy Forrest – Tenor sax
Calvin Newborn – Guitar
Tommy Potter – Bass
Hugh Lawson- Piano
Clarendon Johnston - Drums
CD2
Most Much
1. Matilda
2. Annie Laurie
3. Autumn Leaves
4. My Buddy
5. Soft Winds
6. Robbin’s Nest
7. Most Much
Jimmy Forrest – Tenor sax
Hugh Lawson – Piano
Tommy Potter – Bass
Clarendon Johnston – Drums
Ray Barretto – Congas
Soul Street
8. Soul Street
9. I Love You
10. Sonny Boy
11. Soft Summer Breeze
12. Experiments in Terror
13. Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
14. That’s All
Jimmy Forrest, George Barrow, King Curtis, Seldon Powell - Tenor
sax
Oliver Nelson - Conductor, tenor sax
Jerome Richardson - Alto sax, flute
Pepper Adams - Baritone sax
Art Farmer, Idrees Sulieman, Ernie Royal – Trumpet
George "Buster" Cooper, Jimmy Cleveland – Trombone
Gene Casey, Hugh Lawson, Ray Bryant, Chris Woods – Piano
Calvin Newborn, Tiny Grimes, Mundell Lowe – Guitar
George Duvivier, Tommy Potter,?Wendell Marshall, Richard Davis – Bass
Roy Haynes, Clarence Johnston, Osie Johnson, Ed Shaughnessy – Drums
Ray Barretto – Congas
As reissue labels scour the archives for more albums
to re-release, they seem to throw up more and more artists who have
almost been forgotten. Jimmy Forrest is not exactly a household name,
even though he had a big hit in 1951 with Night Train, a
tune whose main theme he “borrowed” from Happy-Go-Lucky Local
– a composition by Duke Ellington which Forrest played when he was
briefly in the Duke’s orchestra. Earlier he had made his name in the
bands of Jay McShann (next to Charlie Parker) and Andy Kirk.
He was one of the hard-blowing tenor-saxists whose music bridged the gap between jazz and rhythm-and-blues. This double album illustrates his work with
three LPs from 1961, plus Soul Street recorded between 1958 and 1962.
Out of the Forrest
features Jimmy with a quartet that included pianist Joe Zawinul two years after he had emigrated from Austria to the USA. The LP was recorded in the same
year that Joe joined Cannonball Adderley’s group, where he truly became famous. Zawinul supplies suitably bluesy backing for Jimmy Forrest: understated so
as to leave the spotlight on the tenor sax. The saxist bends notes, growls, and often plays with a buzzing tone. Zawinul gets the chance to solo on a few
numbers and shows that he was already a considerable pianist.
The second LP, Sit Down and Relax with Jimmy Forrest, has Hugh Lawson on piano instead of Zawinul, and it adds Calvin Newborn on electric guitar.
Newborn plays some effective solos, as does Lawson, although the spotlight is still primarily on Jimmy Forrest’s down-home saxophone.
The third LP, Most Much, has the same line-up except
for swapping the guitarist for conga drummer Ray Barretto, who opens
the album with some vigorous percussion and keeps the pot boiling
for the rest of the LP. Annie Laurie may be an unexpected
tune to find in such a session but Forrest makes it soulful. Hugh
Lawson’s delicate piano is featured on Autumn Leaves, where
Jimmy Forrest proves that he can play with a mixture of lyricism and
soul, and My Buddy offers another chance for him to show
that he could improvise with subtlety.
The final LP, Soul Street, is a strange mixture, recorded over several years and featuring a quintet, sextet and big band, all directed by Oliver
Nelson. The personnel contains many famous names but the listing does not make it clear who is playing on which tracks, and the sessions give Jimmy Forrest
fewer opportunities to solo. However, he produces a gutsy solo on I Love You and his playing on Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’ is almost
ferocious. The big band doesn’t add a lot to the overall effect, and Oliver Nelson’s arrangements are less striking than on some of his other albums.
I have complained before about the small print on some of Avid’s sleeve-notes and I can hardly read them on this album, even with my trusted magnifying
glass. However, the remastering offers good sound quality, and the price is the usual bargain.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Avid AMSC 1096
