NEW RELEASES : *** 1/2 RAY BROWN “Moore Makes Four” <i> Concord Jazz</i> : *** GENE HARRIS “Black & Blue” <i> Concord Jazz</i>
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The title of bassist Brown’s album is a reference to tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, and in many ways it’s more the saxophonist’s album since Moore is featured at length in a well-balanced collection of 1920s-through-’40s bop and pop standards.
Though supposedly inspired by John Coltrane, Moore is chordal rather than modal, and at times he sounds surprisingly restrained. Gene Harris on piano, Jeff Hamilton on drums and Brown on bass sustain the mainstream groove on Charlie Parker’s “Quasimodo” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “The Champ.”
A quartet of a very different stripe is heard on “Black & Blue.” Although Harris is the common element, he adjusts his style smartly to the more blues-oriented requirements here. Replacing the tenor sax is guitarist Ron Eschete, who is sympathetically funky.
The tunes are a fairly conventional cross section of blues, quasi-blues, crypto-blues and non-blues, even including Stevie Wonder’s “Another Star.” The high points (“C. C. Rider,” “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”) make for greasy listening.
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