Norman Simmons has had an interesting career as a back seat driver. He’s mainly known for the first hard bop big band arrangements on Johnny Griffin’s pioneering 1960 album, Big Soul Band. Most of his career has been as pianist and, usually, musical director to jazz singers: Betty Carter; Carmen McRae; Anita O’Day; Chris Connor; Joe Williams et al. Since Williams died in 1999, Simmons has moved forwards; this is his third CD for Savant.
Most of it was recorded in the small hours in a hotel lobby in Japan and feels wonderful. But Caravan is a masterpiece. Simmons thinks the normal approach to this tune, with the band charging across the desert, is “unrealistic”. He imagines carrying the load across endless sands. But the way it comes out, for me, is a (delicate) slow grind/belly rub, with a Bolero rhythm set down by Paul Humphrey’s brushes, Lisle Atkinson’s bass booming out the riff to A Love Supreme, and Simmons full of eastern promise. What a sexy groove! - AM
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