Cool "Gator"

Last updated
Cool "Gator"
Cool Gator.jpg
Studio album by Willis Jackson
Released 1960
Recorded May 25 and November 9, 1959 and February 26, 1960
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Genre Jazz
Label Prestige
PR 7172
Producer Esmond Edwards
Willis Jackson chronology
Please Mr. Jackson
(1959)		Cool "Gator"
(1960)		 Blue Gator
(1960)

Cool "Gator" (also released as Keep on a Blowin') is the second album led by saxophonist Willis Jackson featuring organist Jack McDuff and guitarist Bill Jennings which was recorded in 1959 and 1960 and released on the Prestige label. [1]

Willis "Gator" Jackson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Jack McDuff American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader

Eugene McDuff, known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break.

Prestige Records American jazz record label

Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under subsidiaries. In 1971, the company was sold to Fantasy, which was later absorbed by Concord.

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]

Allmusic awarded the album 4½ stars calling it "Enjoyable and accessible music that swings and contains its share of soul". [2]

Track listing

  1. "Keep on a' Blowin'" (Willis Jackson, Jack McDuff) – 10:24
  2. "How Deep Is the Ocean?" (Irving Berlin) – 4:04
  3. "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh) – 3:30
  4. "Blue Strollin'" (Jackson) – 7:45
  5. "The Man I Love" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 7:13
  6. "A Smooth One" (Benny Goodman) – 5:24

Personnel

Tenor saxophone type of saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the Alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".

Hammond organ electric organ

The Hammond organ is an electric organ, invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Various models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to specify a variety of sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup, and then strengthening the signal with an amplifier so it can drive a speaker cabinet. Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ is commonly used with, and associated with, the Leslie speaker.

Guitar fretted string instrument

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

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References

  1. ↑ Prestige Records discography accessed February 15, 2013
  2. 1 2 Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed February 15, 2013
  3. ↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 110. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.


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