I Question Your Motive

The first set went looking for the exits. This time we find there's plenty of room inside.

Eleven sides of hard bop, blues, gospel, swing, and a few things that don't sit comfortably under any of those labels. Horace Silver gets us moving, Jimmy Smith and Larry Young approach the organ from different directions, and Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, and the Modern Jazz Quartet remind us that there's more than one way to make room for a melody. Mobley, Morgan, Gordon, and the Jazz Messengers bring us home.

No chronology to observe, no manifesto to defend. Just an hour or so with musicians who knew the language well enough to make it their own.

Best enjoyed without interruption.