Clifford Jordan

We did this as a guest post over at soundological and now its time to drop it on the HQ blog. "Glass Bead Games" is not the rarest piece of jazz vinyl you'll come across but it is certainly an LP that you must have in your collection, period. This is the kind of record that will have you looking at the tracklist whenever your iTunes shuffle finds a track from the album.

Here's what Dusty Groove has to say about Clifford Jordan's best record...

An essential bit of 70s soul jazz -- a real standout in both the catalogs of tenorist Clifford Jordan, and the Stata East label! This is one of those few records where every element is perfect, and all players rise together to a new level of expression -- and we'd easily rank this one right up there with John Coltrane's Love Supreme or Pharoah Sanders' Kharma for sheer magnitude of sound and message! Clifford Jordan is at the height of his tenor powers -- cutting sharp lines, stretching out his notes, and hitting all these dark edges that had never appeared in his work -- and the rest of the group is great too -- with Stanley Cowell on piano, Bill Lee on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Higgins is amazing, and gives the set a sort of lyrical freeplay that makes Jordan's hard solos come alive in a magical way -- and Cedar Walton also plays piano on a few numbers, pushing things forward with the sense of warmth and imagination that always made him a treat in the 70s! Every cut's a winner, and the set list includes "John Coltrane", "Alias Buster Henry", "Glass Bead Games", "Biskit", and "Bridgework". Great stuff, and a huge amount of music!

Clifford Jordan "Glass Bead Games"

1. Powerful Paul Robeson
2. The Glass Bead Games
3. Prayer To The People
4. Cal Massey
5. John Coltrane
6. Eddie Harris
7. Biskit
8. Shoulders
9. Bridgework
10. Maimoun
11. Alias Buster Henry
12. One For Amos

Enjoy our pick of the bunch.


Boomp3.com
Download here.