Shirley Scott - On a Clear Day (1966 US Impulse! Vinyl LP, Gatefold)

Shirley Scott - On a Clear Day | Vinyl LP, 1966 US Impulse! (AS-9109, Gatefold)

• An organ trio session with Ron Carter on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, the only Shirley Scott Impulse! album to feature this particular rhythm section
• Six standards (Irving Berlin, Bacharach/David, Jobim, Mancini/Mercer, Lane/Lerner) and two Scott originals, recorded in a single session on January 6, 1966
• Original US stereo pressing on Impulse!, produced by Bob Thiele, with Van Gelder stamp in the dead wax and cover photography by Charles Stewart

Most of Shirley Scott’s albums for Impulse! featured her then-husband, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. This one does not. The absence of a horn player changes the balance entirely: Scott’s Hammond organ carries both the melody and the harmonic weight, and what emerges is a leaner, more rhythmic record than the Scott-Turrentine albums that surround it. Ron Carter’s bass and Jimmy Cobb’s drums keep the groove tight and the solos concise. Dusty Groove describes it as “one of the best Shirley Scott albums ever,” and part of the reason is the discipline the trio format imposes: there is nowhere to hide and nothing to fill the space except the playing itself.

The programme moves between Irving Berlin songs from the 1920s (“What’ll I Do?”, “All Alone”), a Jobim bossa nova (“Corcovado”), the Bacharach/David pop hit “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” and two Scott originals that anchor the album in blues (“Cold Winter Blues,” “Instant Blues”). Scott was born in Philadelphia, started on piano at six, switched to the Hammond B-3 in 1955 after filling in for an absent organist at a club, and within months was hired by tenor saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, recording the Cookbook albums that made her reputation. By the time of this session she had been recording as a leader for nearly a decade. Carter and Cobb need no introduction: Carter was Miles Davis’s bassist in the Second Great Quintet, and Cobb was the drummer on Kind of Blue. The record was produced by Bob Thiele, with the lacquer cut by Rudy Van Gelder. Liner notes by Stanley Dance. Cover photograph by Charles Stewart. Gatefold sleeve. Catalogue number AS-9109.