Bennie Green during his Walkin’ and Talkin’ session, Hackensack NJ, January 25 1959 (photo by Francis Wolff)
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Bennie Green - Can’t We Be Friends (1958)
Bennie Green, Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers et al, swinging for the fences.
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Bennie Green - It’s Groovy (1958)
Yes, it is.
This recording went unreleased until the Japanese cut a deal to release “the other side of the Blue Note 1500 series” in the early ’80s. Notwithstanding the LP’s apparent obscurity, it is a humdinger, especially when you consider the appearance of the in-form and ever-swinging Sonny Clark, and Bennie Green’s voice-like trombone stylings.
Bennie Green and Babs Gonzales during Green’s Minor Revelation session, Hackensack NJ, November 23 1958 (photo by Francis Wolff)
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Bennie Green - Lullaby of the Doomed (1958)
The eerie similarity to Monk’s immortal ‘Round Midnight notwithstanding, this track is an almost equally haunting and plaintive howl from Bennie Green’s trombone, with a soulful turn from Gene Ammons, amidst Sonny Clark’s moody, pitch-perfect accompaniment.
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Ike Quebec - See See Rider (1962)
Give this the time it deserves and you will be justly rewarded by the bluesy brilliance of Quebec and his front line. The palpable synergy between Sonny Clark and Art Blakey is right where it was a week earlier on Grant Green’s Nigeria, and Clark’s solo oozes the blues. This is among a handful of Quebec’s and Clark’s last studio recordings, as they were both dead (cancer and heroin, respectively) within a year.
