Most people have heard Curtis Amy, if only the tenor solo on the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women or the soprano sax solo on Carole King’s It’s Too Late. Amy was a great Texas tenor player; not as important as Newman, Jacquet or King Curtis, but well up there. This set of three CDs contains all six of the LPs he recorded between 1960 and 1963 for Pacific Jazz. There is not a dud track anywhere.
The first CD covers The Blues Message and Meetin’ Here, two albums by a quintet Amy co-led with the brilliant, but obscure, organist, Paul Bryant. The front line of tenor, valve trombone and organ is pretty unusual and sounds wonderful, quite aside from the playing.
CD #2 covers Groovin’ Blue and Way Down – you can tell where Amy is coming from by his titles, can’t you? Roy Brewster is once again on valve trombone, but Bryant was replaced by two up and coming vibes players – Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Ayers, and three piano players.
The final disc covers Tippin’ on Through – a live LP with Ayers and Brewster once more on board – and Amy’s masterpiece, Katanga, one of the albums that I’d take to a desert island (even if it meant leaving some Grant Green behind) - AM
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