INTO SOMETHIN'

Into Somethin' was Larry Young's first record with Blue Note, and it shows him moving past his blues/jazz roots and 'Into Somethin' a little more adventurous. It will still be about four more years before Young will be recording ground breaking psychedelic jazz/fusion with Miles, McLaughlin, Santana and Hendrix, but you can hear the first signs of that restless need for exploration on this album.

This was a whole new band for Larry, gone are the more traditional blues/jazz musicians he made his first couple records with. In their place are two giants of the avant-garde, Elvin Jones and Sam Rivers, and groove jazz guitarist Grant Green. Throughout this album Jones and Rivers push at the boundaries while Green stays in the pocket and Young stays traditional for Green's solos, but then joins Jones in helping push Rivers' saxophone solos into more avant territory.

Even the tunes themselves are a mixed bag, with Tyrone and Plaza de Toros giving the band a little more room to go off, while the other three songs show the band staying in a more traditional mode. On Tyrone you can hear Larry developing some of the minimalist type repeating lines that will come to the forefront on his avant fusion recordings in the 70s. Throughout this album you can hear Young breaking from traditional blues based B3 scales and into more quartal type arpeggios and stacked fourth chords, these sounds will go onto to be a big influence on progressive rock keyboardists such as Brian Auger and Keith Emerson.

This isn't one of Young's best records, but it isn't bad, throughout this recording his B3 solos rank with the very best, and you can never go wrong with Elvin Jones on drums, but I just prefer to hear Larry in a less conservative setting, which is exactly where he will be heading on subsequent recordings.

This was Larry's 2nd album with Blue Note records and his first under his name. Released in 1964 and produced by Alfred Lion and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. Sidemen are Sam Rivers on tenor sax,Grant Green on guitar and Elvin Jones on drums.

Larry Young was definately not a Jimmy Smith and that is immediately apparent when listening to his technique on the organ.Where as Jimmy Smith, John Patton,Freddie Roach and Baby Face Willette on the Blue Note Label were players more inclined to play groove Larry Young was more introspective and used the organ more as a vehcile for solos as inclined to be used by a pianist but still could maintain rythmn as there is no bass used.

The first track Tyrone is a Larry composition as all the other tracks are also composed by Larry except track 2 Plaza De Toros which was a Grant Green number. The tune rolls along in a relaxed groove and Larry is first up with the solo followed by Grant on guitar and Sam Rivers on Sax .

Plaza de Toros,Grant Green comes in first,followed by Sam on sax and then Larry.Grant Green has written the piece in a spanish style and of course I love the track. Sam rivers solo is great,how he gets that spanish feel is beautiful on his tenor.

On Ritha the last track there is no Sam he was ommitted as Larry was more after a trio for this tune. A quiet relaxed piece as is the whole album. This is not out there but more inclined to be a straight up Jazz album but one can here that things were changing and Hard Bop was starting to tire with the fans and muscians at this time and Jazz was changing again and heading towards the Avante Garde and a more free approach which ia apparent in Larry's later albums to come.

Progressive no, Great Jazz Yes.

4 Stars great album with a typical great Blue Note production