Soul Junction The Red Garland Quintet

• 1 Soul Junction 15:27
• 2 Woodyn' You 06:49
• 3 Birks' Works 07:35
• 4 I've Got It Bad And That Ain T Good 06:17
• 5 Hallelujah 06:28
• Total Runtime 42:36

Info for Soul Junction

While the late Red Garland is best-known and fondly remembered as the pianist for the Miles Davis Quintet in the mid-1950s, he also had a career of his own. Garland's style was a gregarious balance of the sophistication of bebop and the earthiness of the blues.

'Soul Junction', recorded in 1950, is Garland leading a group featuring Davis bandmate John Coltrane and soon-to-be-rising-trumpet-star (in the late '50s/early '60s) Donald Byrd. It's a thoroughly enjoyable hard bop jaunt through a Garland original and four familiar standards, with Coltrane laying down his near-torrential 'sheets of sound' and Byrd playing Mr. Cool to 'Trane's soul and fire. Art Taylor keeps things swinging crisply and Garland, as usual, is masterful (but never in a show-off manner).

'Pianist Red Garland's very relaxed, marathon blues solo on the 16-minute 'Soul Junction' is the most memorable aspect of this (album) reissue. With such soloists as tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Donald Byrd, plus steady support provided by bassist George Joyner and drummer Art Taylor, Garland gets to stretch out on the title cut and four jazz originals, including 'Birk's Works' and 'Hallelujah.' Coltrane is in excellent form, playing several stunning sheets of sound solos.' (AMG)

Red Garland, piano
John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
Donald Byrd, trumpet
George Joyner, bass
Art Taylor, drums

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on November 15, 1957

Digitally remastered

The Red Garland Quintet
Some groups have existed only in the recording studio but have produced music of lasting value. This quintet, under Red Garland's leadership, actually did play some gigs around New York in the fall of 1957, but even if it hadn't, the rapport in the studio would still have been powerful.

Beginning with the association of Garland and John Coltrane in the Miles Davis Quintet and continuing with Arthur Taylor's trio connection with Garland, and Donald Byrd's having worked with all of them in one form or another, there was enough of a common spirit in the musical attitudes of all the participants. With familiar jazz and pop standards and open-ended blues for material, the band celebrated the glories of strong swing and bottomless imagination as Byrd, Coltrane, and the ever-effervescent leader demonstrated the state of the improviser's art, with a perpetual groove and occasional solo assistance from Taylor and George Joyner (now known as Jamil Nasser).

Booklet for Soul Junction