Just a Memory Reissues Alvin Queen's "Jammin' Uptown"

Alvin Queen's Jammin' Uptown
Big John Patton's Soul Connection

Alvin Queen's propulsive drumming has been powering the jazz establishment for fifty years, and Justin Time Records is proud to reissue two seminal titles from Queen's Nilva catalog on its acclaimed subsidiary, Just A Memory Records. Recorded in the 1980s, and never before issued on CD, these two releases showcase the drummer in starkly different, but equally energetic contexts, showing Queen at the top of his game and in the company of some of the most extraordinary musicians in the business.

Queen's musical pedigree is as impeccable as his timing. A child prodigy, he burst onto the scene under the enthusiastic tutelage of Elvin Jones, who placed a very young Queen onstage the night John Coltrane recorded his legendary 1963 Birdland date. Queen has never looked back. Currently living in Switzerland, the drummer first ventured to Europe as a member of trumpeter Charles Tolliver's Music Inc., and it was from Tolliver that he took inspiration to found Nilva, his own record label. Queen's strong but supple presence has also graced the working groups of masters such as Randy Weston, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson, among many others. While he can swing small combos and big bands with verve and taste, his frequent work with small groups, especially those driven by top-drawer organists, has brought him well-deserved recognition.

Soul Connection, recorded under the late great Big John Patton's name, sports such a band. Reminiscent of the horns-plus-organ sound that defined so many classic soul-jazz releases of the 1960s, every tune breathes an easy and relaxed exuberance. Like those great sessions of yore, the analog recording is crisp, thick and full.

Queen, who oversaw the remastering, would have it no other way. Every detail is crystal clear, absolutely essential where Queen's rhythms are concerned. Far from simply a purveyor of deep-in-pocket groove, Queen's sense of melody rivals that of Mel Louis. Just revel in the way he accentuates the horn lines in the earthy triple-meter title track as Big John riffs, slides, lopes and stutters just beneath and overtop! Born of long and fruitful association, their rhythmic polyphony is tight beyond compare but agile and flexible beyond reproach.

These two melodic percussionists could not find better support than in the slick and funky stringsmanship of guitarist Melvin Sparks, whose brief but punchily boppish solos are surpassed only by his expert comping, equally redolent of sugar and spice but always flexing a little muscle. Yet, it's the horns that really seal the deal, the throaty yet sinewy rasp of Grant Reed's tenor saxophone complimented beautifully by Grachan Moncur III's fiery-velvet trombone. Moncur also contributes two compositions, including the deceptively simple and irrepressibly swinging “Space Station," over which the quintet emotes with controlled freedom.

A different sort of liberation pervades the newly sequenced version of Jammin' Uptown, a rollicking sextet session from 1985. There is soul a-plenty for sure, with trumpeter Terence Blanchard sliding, swooping and gliding through his scorchingly beautiful solo on the Robin Eubanks-penned “After Liberation," while the melody pits breathtaking Mingusian chromaticism against the close harmonies associated with the late Jimmy Giuffre's “Four Brothers" sound to stunning effect.

The arrangements are similarly adventurous throughout, while never exceeding the bounds of taste. Alto saxophonist Manny Boyd's two offerings--"Jammin' Uptown" and “Hassan"-- sport deliciously open voicings, and his solo on the latter positively glitters. This reissue affords an opportunity to hear Eubanks and Blanchard fairly early in their respective careers as they blaze the virtuosic and compositional trails to which we've now become accustomed. It is also a special treat to have another glimpse into the dense but precise harmonic worlds evoked by the much lamented John Hicks, whose pianism on this date is brilliant yet effortless.

As with Soul Connection, Alvin Queen's consummate rhythmic certainty holds the group together; on Jammin' Uptown, even more impressive is his immense arsenal of timbres and textures. Witness his sharp but sweet brushwork, supported by Ray Drummond's masterful bass, on the Golson-esque “Resolution of Love," another Eubanks contribution and the only slow burner in the set. Conversely, Queen's hands are ablaze as “Hear Me Drummin'" roars to life. A live track from 2001, “Drummin'" is a duet with conga player Hrvoje Rupcic and is exclusive to this reissue.

Both albums bristle with life and vitality, two traits with which Alvin Queen's playing has long been associated. They re-enforce the drummer's peerless versatility in the service of a rhythmic sense second to none. Long sought after by collectors and jazz enthusiasts, these welcome reissues restore two powerful documents to the catalog and into the wider circulation they so richly merit.