Larry Young - Unity (1981 Japanese King Record GXK-8205 Vinyl LP)

Larry Young - Unity | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese King Record Reissue (GXK-8205 / BST 84221, Blue Note Collectors' Item Series)

• The album that made jazz organ a serious instrument, a bass-less quartet with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones on drums, Young's Hammond B-3 covering both harmonic and bass functions
• Three Woody Shaw originals including "The Moontrane", his Coltrane dedication that became a jazz standard, alongside Joe Henderson's "If", Thelonious Monk's "Monk's Dream" and the Hammerstein/Romberg standard "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise"
• Japanese Blue Note Collectors' Item Series pressing on King Record, Reid Miles cover design

Before Unity, jazz organ on Blue Note meant Jimmy Smith and soul jazz. Larry Young had started in that tradition and recorded for Prestige in the early 1960s, but by the time he walked into Van Gelder's studio on November 10, 1965, he was after something else entirely. The decision to record without a bassist was the first signal. Young's left hand and foot pedals carry the bass function, freeing the quartet from a conventional rhythm section and giving the music a different centre of gravity. "Zoltan", Shaw's opening composition, begins with a march-like figure inspired by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály before erupting into a Latin-tinged blowout with Henderson's tenor spiralling over Jones's polyrhythms. From the first bars it is clear this is not a blowing session. Henderson and Shaw are both at their most angular and aggressive, and Young's organ comping behind them jabs across and against the beat in a way that has more in common with McCoy Tyner's piano than with anything in the organ tradition. "Monk's Dream" strips to a duo, just Young and Jones, and the audacity of playing Monk on a B-3 pays off because Young treats the organ as an equal keyboard instrument rather than leaning on its sustain.

"If", Henderson's twelve-bar composition, shifts naturally from trumpet to saxophone to organ, each solo building on the last. "The Moontrane", Shaw's dedication to John Coltrane, became the most played piece from the session, its harmonic cycles reflecting Coltrane's influence while the melody remains Shaw's own. "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" is taken at a pace that lets Jones stretch, and the interplay between organ and drums on this track alone would justify the album. "Beyond All Limits" closes with Shaw's most harmonically demanding composition, the kind of writing that, in his words, offers no limits once the inherent difficulties are solved. Jones, performing here by courtesy of Atlantic, is the anchor throughout, and his rapport with Young gives the record a rhythmic density that a conventional piano trio could not match. Produced by Alfred Lion, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.

This is the 1981 Japanese reissue on King Record (GXK-8205), part of the Blue Note Collectors' Item Series, with Reid Miles' distinctive typographic cover reproduced. Liner notes by Nat Hentoff.