Search - Baby Face Willette :: Face to Face (Reis)

Solid organ/tenor jazz session

01/28/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Baby Face Willette isn't as well-known as other jazz organists, but his albums are invariably satisfying. This CD comes from a 1963 date, and Willette is joined by tenor sax player Fred Jackson, who swings hard and preaches the blues with conviction throughout the session. Grant Green, who lent his considerable skills to many jazz organ classics of the 1960s, contributes flawless solos and/or excellent backing on every cut. On drums, organ combo veteran Ben Dixon is, as ever, the perfect sideman, subtle, funky, swinging and tasteful, always on target and never in the way. The set is a mix of swingers and blues, and, for me, the highlight is "Goin' Down", a slow, deepdown blues with stellar solos from Willette and Jackson. "Whatever Lola Wants", from the score of the musical "Damn Yankees", is another good cut. It's taken uptempo, with a slight Latin feel, and creates a solid groove. If you like jazz organ, this set should satisfy you. If you're a newcomer to the genre, this is a good place to start."

Way way way groovy ! ! !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 01/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is so ridiculously cool and groovy, its almost off the scale... It also brilliantly strattles ground between heavy deep and conceptual Blue Note Hard Bop/Soul Jazz and obscure R&B...

I mean, you listen to this album, and you can almost imagine some dark dingy High School Confidential/Greenwich Village dive, with a bunch of kids doing the frug and watusi as a shady looking Jazz band wails away in the backround... (and oh yeah, don't forget a few of Olga's dope dealers lurking in the shadows looking to get some poor youth hooked.)



All kidding aside, Baby Face's playing is quite unusual... its drenched in the blues like Smith, only way way way way more unapologeticly bluesy (IMHO)... and some of his pyrotechnics also seem to foreshadow Groove Holmes... on the other hand, the off centered unpredictability of Freddie Roach and John Patton are there as well, making his playing almost and antithesis to Holmes... or even Patterson and Young. Also of note: His bass lines are way way way cool as well as his brilliantly laid comps, and his sound is very much his own. - - It should be noted that it is a historical fact that he and Jack McDuff used to hang out in the same barber shop together (both had processes), and as hard as it is to say, even though McDuff and McGriff epitomized groovyness, once you hear the mix of Face/Dixon/Green and Fred Jackson, you may not ever be able to go back... The lock between Dixon/Green and Willette are even tighter than on the Donaldson/Patton sessions... tunes build to a frenzic intensity... Fred Jackson's solos can go from Big Tenor Swing one moment, to classic chitlin circuit R&B the next...

SOMETHING STRANGE (a minor blues) and WHATEVER LOLA WANTS are my faves, though all the tunes on the album do it for me.



All in all, I can listen to this album over and over and over and not get enough of it... each player (including Ben Dixon) stands in his own right, yet as a team they are also a force greater than nature... Grant Green, incidentally has a comp that locks in perfectly with Willette and you get the impression that he was having a HECK of a lot of fun on that session, as was everyone else.



Buy this CD... its very possible you never heard Jazz played as bluesy, gritty, grimey and funky as this, and very possible you never will again... such was the era and the matching of the right people at a moment in time, circa the earaly 60s..."

Criminally Underrated Organist

J. W. Settle | Wakefield, West Yorks, UK | 12/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I would hazard a guess that very few people have even heard of this guy with the face of a 10 year old but he is really an unsung hero of the Hammond organ.

His sound is very different to that of Jimmy Smith, Larry Young or Jimmy McGriff, for example, and can really swing a good solo.

His sidemen are second to none. Grant Green (despite recording seemingly hundreds of albums for Blue Note) remains a neglected virtuoso and has a more edgier guitar tone on this session than the later stuff.

Fred Jackson is another non-entity on tenor sax but deserved everything a great session like this gave to him (i.e. more recognition).

Drummer Ben Dixon is solid and really swings hard. Name any other sessions he appeared on?

All in all, a fantastic listen. This is jazz playing at its finest with a great production sound to match. Also good as a conversation piece (i.e. "Who the hell is this guy?" "Well.....")."