Up & Down

Performer: Horace Parlan
Producer: Alfred Lion; Michael Cuscuna (Reissue)
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Horace Parlan (piano); Grant Green (guitar); Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone); George Tucker (bass instrument, bass guitar); Al Harewood (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. By adding guitarist Grant Green and tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin to his standard rhythm section of bassist George Tucker and drummer Al Harewood, pianist Horace Parlan opens up his sound and brings it closer to soul-jazz on 1961's UP & DOWN. Green's clean, graceful style meshes well with Parlan's relaxed technique, while Ervin's robust tone and virile attack provides a good contrast to the laid-back groove the rhythm section lays down. Stylistically, the music is balanced between hard bop and soul-jazz, tied together by the bluesy tint in the three soloists' playing. All of the six original compositions give the band room to stretch out--not only to show off their chops, but move the music somewhat away from generic conventions and seek new territory. In other words, UP & DOWN finds Parlan at a peak and coming into his own as a pianist and a leader.

Record Collector (magazine) (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] scintillating hard bop gem treasured by the Blue Note cognoscenti..."

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