Heavy Soul (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) (Vinyl LP)

There may not be a more apropos album title in all of recorded music than tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec’s 1961 classic Heavy Soul. The session marked a comeback for a crucial player in Blue Note history.

Quebec had recorded a series of 78s for Alfred Lion in the 1940s and also served as a talent scout who encouraged Lion to record important figures of the emerging bebop scene including Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. After a difficult period through the 1950s, Lion began to reintroduce Quebec’s music to jazz fans in 1959 with a series of 45 jukebox singles that were well received and inspired Lion to put the saxophonist back into the studio for a full album session. So, in November 1961 Quebec brought a 4-piece band into Van Gelder Studio that included Freddie Roach on organ, Milt Hinton on bass, and Al Harewood on drums.

The resulting 8-song set is a soul jazz masterclass with Quebec’s robust tenor conjuring a variety of moods from the rhythmic drive of swinging originals like Acquitted and Que’s Dilemma to slow-tempo stunners including Just One More Chance, Brother Can You Spare a Dime, and I Want A Little Girl. A remarkable reading of The Man I Love leads into the sultry title piece, which practically drips with soul, but it’s the album closer which delivers a showstopper. With Roach and Harewood laying out Quebec and Hinton converse in a duo setting on a spellbinding performance of Nature Boy that reverberates in the listener’s soul long after the last note has faded.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Tracklist

A1. Acquitted
A2. Just One More Chance
A3. Que's Dilemma
A4. Brother Can You Spare A Dime 
B1. The Man I Love 
B2. Heavy Soul 
B3. I Want A Little Girl
B4. Nature Boy