Search - Red Garland :: Dig It!

Don't Totally "Dig It!"

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 06/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In writing first-time reviews of Original Jazz Classics CDs that are sadly going out-of-print, I was suprised to discover that Red Garland's "Dig It!" had yet to be reviewed on Amazon. In late 1957, Donald Byrd and the great John Coltrane joined the Red Garland trio to make three of the year's best blowing sessions -- "All Mornin' Long," "Soul Junction" and High Pressure (see my review of the latter). "Dig It!" unfortunately contains the leftovers. The real smokin' session was the November 15, 1957 session that produced all of "All Mornin' Long" and "Soul Junction," and part of "High Pressure." The remainder of "High Pressure" was cut on December 13, 1957 and this album's "Billie's Bounce" and "Lazy Mae" were plucked from that date. "Dig It's" remaining cuts are real cut and paste jobs -- "CTA" borrowed from the March 12, 1957 session that yielded "Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors" (this track also appeared on Art Taylor's "Taylor's Wailers"), and "Crazy Rhythm," a trio only performance from February 2, 1958. But sometimes leftovers can be yummy, if they're warmed up properly, and while I don't totally dig "Dig It!" I'm still happy to have more to nourish myself with from this great group."

Not Groundbreaking, Just Soul.

Gerrit R. Hatcher | 11/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a Trane fan who feels like you have his whole discography, but not this, this review is for you.



If you are a Red Garland fan, well obviously keep reading.



If you peruse the internet looking for editorial content pertaining to this album, words such as "cobbled together" will rear their heads often. This is one the many ironies of jazz collecting: when unissued material is sold as "rare" "bonus" or "alternate" out of the context of the original session, fans of the artist will clamor for it, but when a label (quite often prestige as in this case) tries to structure this usually random material into a coherent album, jazz fans act like they are getting slighted. This is far from the case; what you get here is a heap of bluesy sheets of sound from Trane, laid back funky and soulful piano work from Garland, and Art Taylor's consistently fantastic drumming. Byrd sounds positively Cliffordish on the two opportunities he gets to blow. This isn't to say this is essential, but up until recently the internet had me convinced that collecting prestige era Trane wasn't worth it, this is anything but the case, and he really steals the show here. If you liked Blue Train's bluesy hard bop, then this fellow 1957 jam is most definitely for you. Garland's long opening/solo on Lazy Mae rates a close second to Trane's stellar work on Billies Bounce, and the program is great across the board . The lack of a ballad is the one thing that shows Prestige didn't approach this as a singular album experience, but I'd rather hear uptempo work from this group anyways. The short program of four songs is still longer than A Love Surpreme, so don't feel like the 34 minutes you get aren't enough to get a great vibe across."