Ted brown & Jimmy Raney: "In Good Company" (Label: Criss Cross – 1985)

In Good Company makes a nice companion piece to Warne Marsh’s Back Home, another mid-’80s Criss Cross date reissued in 2001. Ted Brown and guitar legend Jimmy Raney are essentially co-leaders here, teaming with a stellar rhythm section in pianist Hod O’Brien, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Ben Riley. The CD adds five alternate takes to the original seven selections. There’s some good Tristano-oriented bop writing here, particularly Brown’s opening “Blimey,” based on “Limehouse Blues.” 

David R. Adler, All Music Guide

Tracklist:

1 Blimey 

2 Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You

3 Lost and Found 

4 Sir Felix 

5 Instant Blue 

6 We’ll Be Together Again 

7 People Will Say We’re in Love 

Personnel: 

Ted Brown (tenor saxophone); 

Jimmy Raney (guitar); 

Hod O’Brien (piano); 

Ben Riley (drums).

Recorded December 23, 1985 in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA by Rudy Van Gelder (Label: Criss Cross)

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Gary Bartz – There Goes The Neighborhood (1990 – Candid Records)

Alto saxophonist Gary Bartz attended the Juilliard Conservatory of Music and became a member of Charles Mingus’ Jazz Workshop from 1962-1964 where he worked with Eric Dolphy and encountered McCoy Tyner for the first time. He also began gigging as a sideman in the mid-’60s with Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, and later as a member of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. His recording debut was on Blakey’s Soul Finger album. Tyner formed his famed Expansions band in 1968 with Bartz on alto. In addition, Bartz also formed his own bands at this time and recorded a trio of albums for Milestone, and continued to tour with Max Roach’s band. In 1970, Miles Davis hired Bartz and featured him as a soloist on the Live-Evil recording. Bartz formed the Ntu Troop that year as well, an ensemble that fused soul and funk, African folk music, hard bop, and vanguard jazz into a vibrant whole. Among the group’s four recordings from 1970-1973, Harlem Bush Music: Taifa and Juju Street Songs have proved influential with soul jazzers, and in hip-hop and DJ circles as well. From 1973-1975 Bartz was on a roll, issuing I’ve Known Rivers and Other Bodies, Music Is My Sanctuary, Home, and Another Earth, all stellar outings. He meandered for most of the 1980s, coming back in 1988 with Reflections on Monk. Since that time, Bartz has continued making records of quiet intensity and lyrical power — notably Red & Orange Poems in 1995 — and has with become one of the finest if under-noticed alto players of his generation.
his CD is a living document of the musicianship of Gary Bartz who continues to be one of the most articulate and arresting saxophone voices. The title of the album has special significance for the alto saxophonist. He wanted to make a statement not mere
Although he dismissed notions about a comeback, this ’90 album was the triumphant, exuberant vehicle Gary Bartz hadn’t made in quite a while. His rippling solos and dominant presence were welcome for fans who wondered if he had squandered the potential he’d shown in the ’60s
Thom Jurek

Track list

1 Racism (Blues in Double BB Minor) Bartz 9:47 

2 On a Misty Night Dameron 8:39 

3 Laura Mercer, Raksin 13:28 

4 Tadd’s Delight Dameron 8:58 

5 Impressions Coltrane 10:09 

6 I’ve Never Been in Love Before Loesser 10:13 

7 Flight Path Barron 9:11 

Personnel:

Gary Bartz (Sax Alto)

Kenny Barron (Piano) 

Ray Drummond (Bass) 

Ben Riley (Drums) 

Original Release Date: 1990 – Label: Candid Records
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