Search - Richard "Groove" Holmes :: Blues Groove

Two sixties albums on one CD disk

Dr.D.Treharne | Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom | 02/22/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This comprises two sixties albums recorded 10 months apart. Tracks 1-6 are tracks released as "Get up and get it" recorded in May 1967, and tracks 7 - 11 comprised the July 1966 album "Soul Mist!". There's no remastering on any tracks, but the orginal sound quality was good anyway. On the first album Teddy Edwards plays Tenor Sax and Pat Martino plays guitar with Paul Chambers (b) and Billy Higgins on drums. Overall the best tracks are Teddy Edwards title track, which gives everybody a chance to stretch out, and "Groove's Blue Groove" which as might be expected has a lot of Holmes solo. The other tracks illustrate the problem that artists had back in the sixties when record companies seemed to insist on "standards" to fill out albums. Here they try hard with the version of "Body and Soul" but it doesn't stand comparison with the two tracks mentioned above. The same criticism can be levelled at the second album though Greg Edwards who handled guitar duties sounds less integrated than Martino on the first album.There are two different drummers George Randle and Freddie Waits with Holmes provided bass with the pedals. Two favourite tracks are the ones which have Blue Mitchell on trumpet and Harold Vick on Tenor Sax, "There is no greater love"[but see comments above about material] and an excellent version of Duke Ellington's "Things aint what they used to be". There's also a good attempt by the basic quartet at Freddie Hubbard's "Up jumped spring". It's a good showcase for Holmes,and a good playing time for the money, but my reservations remain the choice of songs."