PAUL GONSALVES – boom (LP Vinyl)

964 seemed to be a great year for jazz music in general and this special piece from a quartet led by the great tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves who was a long time member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra confirms this once more in an astonishing way. This record is a typical instrumental post bop album still not on the verge of progressive and free jazz filled to the max with memorable yet steaming compositions. Gonsalves nails it as a saxophone player and his backing crew consisting of piano, stand up bass and drums joins in to create a stream of sound that drags your soul away directly when you put the needle in the groove. The playing feels easy with sweet but rather melancholic melody lines from piano and sax. It seems like they were singing love songs to each other while the rhythm section lays down the beat both lead instruments dance to. The swinging sleaziness of the one or another passage heats up your blood to a simmering level. As if you were swallowed into a scene of Jack Kerouac’s “On the road”, where a sax player goes wild in a small and dusty club somewhere at the West Coast. Paul Gonsalves and his guys take their listener onto a journey due to these very expressive and strong melodies. This should have been a shining crown jewel of jazz where swing benignly turns into bop. The new and often more radical streams within the genre just oppressed this development and “Boom-Jackie-Boom-Chick” whose title was inspired by the name of Mr. Gonsalves’ regular heroin dealer became an underground classic for those who like to dig deeper into a genre to discover the real treasures. This is pure magic put into music! *Spellbound