Soul Message Richard 'Groove' Holmes

• 1 Groove's Groove 07:07
• 2 Dahoud 05:41
• 3 Misty 06:04
• 4 Song For My Father 06:09
• 5 The Things We Did Last Summer 06:07
• 6 Soul Message 03:29
• Total Runtime 34:37

Info zu Soul Message

This mid-1960s soul-jazz collection features the trio of the organist Richard 'Groove' Holmes, who, despite having been a working musician since the late 1950s, only came to public attention with his first hit, an uptempo reading of 'Misty,' included here. Holmes also performs a Latin-tinged version of Horace Silver's classic 'Song For My Father,' and the hip, swinging title track is a further display of his remarkable invention.

Many Eastern and Midwestern musicians helped sustain the West Coast jazz scene in the ’50s and ’60s, but the only one among them who made an impact in Southern California on Hammond organ was New Jersey native Richard “Groove” Holmes. This was Holmes’s first recording for Prestige, and it both confirmed his status as one of the B-3’s leading practitioners and elevated his profile with the crossover success of “Misty.” Armed with a talented and totally sympathetic rhythm section, a program that emphasized jazz classics (including the first cover version of Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father”) plus two infectious originals, and a unique sound that created excitement without flamboyance and allowed the brilliant bass lines created by his skillful pedal work to shine through with clarity, Holmes turned Soul Message into the signature album of his celebrated career.

„The Hammond B-3 organ, even more than the Fender Rhodes electric piano, simply refuses to surrender to the proponents of digital synthesis, be they manufacturers of keyboards or aging keyboardists looking for less strenuous gigs. The instrument continues to exert a universal appeal, offering a soul-stirring Sunday-morning message at a time and place that suits Saturday-night sinners. All the more reason this RVG edition of Soul Message, a popular recording by one of the instrument's more effective evangelists, is likely to be warmly received among converts and backsliders alike.

In retrospect, the sensation Jimmy Smith created with his up-tempo, head-spinning recording of Dizzy Gillespie's 'The Champ' [The Champ (Blue Note, 1956)] was probably disproportionate to the accomplishment of the performance itself. Primarily, the 'incredible' one (as he was thereafter billed) made it acceptable to bring the churchy behemoth into sinful dens and, as a bonus for playing challenging bebop, was allowed to retain preaching privileges as well.

Richard 'Groove Holmes deftly toes the line between serious jazz and soul/pop worlds on this 1965 recording, which seems targeted at a mainstream audience not in the mood for either teaching or preaching. The familiar songs are given a slight face-lift (Holmes' up-tempo treatment of Erroll Garner's 'Misty' became a hit single), while a less familiar tune like Clifford Brown's 'Dahoud' settles into such an easy, emphatic groove that even a first-time listener could mistake it for a comfortable old slipper.

It was a sweet strategy for Holmes at the time, though the session barely challenges the talented organist to show his wares. This remaster is likely to appeal above all to those who remember the original recording or to listeners in search of the soundscape that only a Hammond B3 plus Leslie speakers can create. The highlight is the opening blues, 'Groove's Groove,' an infectious two-beat toe-tapper that heats up into a walking 4/4 swinger, after which the session kind of simmers down.

On the opener Holmes demonstrates the many uses of a plain F7 chord, staying with those four notes for the better part of several choruses. It's a simple device—holding one note for an entire chorus, then adding the fifth, next the seventh, finally using the Leslie to disrupt the still surface with a wave pattern before returning the unwieldy vessel to the becalming decadence of swamp water.

The trick is to sense (and avoid) the tipping point at which repetition becomes boredom and sustained tension becomes irritation. Holmes plays not only his instrument but the average listener to perfection with ample assistance from the soiled, slightly distorted sound of Gene Edwards' gritty guitar, not to mention the organist's own potent, virile bass lines, which are given a big sonic boost on this latest remaster. Jimmie Smith (the drummer) completes the trio with remarkably restrained, tasteful and supportive accompaniment.

In short, Soul Message doesn't offer the kind of preaching that saves souls, but for listeners unmoved by smooth jazz, it provides a soul-soothing alternative.“ (Samuel Chell, All About Jazz)

Richard 'Groove' Holmes, organ
Gene Edwards, guitar
Jimmie Smith, drums

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on August 3, 1965
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Produced by Cal Lampley

Digitally remastered

Richard "Groove" Holmes
One of the top jazz organists to emerge on the scene after Jimmy Smith’s initial success, Richard “Groove” Holmes (1931-1991) recorded a series of soul jazz sets for Prestige that helped set the direction for that label in the late 1960s.

Holmes worked in small clubs in the Pittsburgh and New Jersey area until he was discovered by Les McCann in 1960. After recording several sets for Pacific Jazz, he was signed to Prestige in 1965 and immediately had a jukebox hit with a catchy double-time version of “Misty.”

Groove Holmes recorded regularly for Prestige during 1965-1968. Soul Message includes “Misty” along with other medium-tempo ballads, soulful originals, and tunes with boogaloo rhythms. Misty repeats the hit and features some other catchy arrangements of standards. Blue Groove reissues two former LPs (Get Up & Get It and Soul Mist) and features such notable sidemen as tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and guitarist Pat Martino. Groove Holmes’s final Prestige albums, The Groover and That Healin’ Feelin’, are reissued in full on his Legends of Acid Jazz. Saxophonist Rusty Bryant is a strong asset on the latter set.

Like many other organists in the mid-1970s, Holmes experimented a bit with electric keyboards. But he soon realized that his musical personality was really to be found on the organ so he switched back, staying active as one of the top organists on the soul-jazz scene until his death in 1991.

Booklet für Soul Message