My Available CD's for Sale - Barbara Morrison

After 30 years in show biz, Barbara Morrison is still working overtime for your entertainment dollar. She's a bail of fire, a font of frenetic energy, a trouper. Night after night, Morrison expands her audience the old-fashioned way - connecting directly with wowed crowds at swanky bistros, colleges and concert halls. Nobody ever leaves a Barbara Morrison show disappointed. 

Morrison's a queen of clubs, with a vast resume. Still, some gigs are extra special, and this all-star CD is a case in point. The mighty Ms. Morrison traveled from her home on the West Coast. The rest of the cast - sax star Houston Person, legendary piano man Junior Mance, and the rock-solid veteran rhythm section of Earl May and Jackie Williams - flew in from the East Coast. L.A. met NYC in the middle of the country, in Minnesota , at one of the Midwest 's finest nightspots, a jazz oasis, a regional treasure. The loose-and-lively, timeless results are in your hand. 

Morrison has certainly tasted success, and wowed audiences that weren't so intimate. She's been a hit a big festivals: Montreaux, Nice, Pori , Monterey , North Sea . Morrison has a strong following Down Under, in Australia . She's been discovered by swing dancers, and featured with the 
Count Basie Orchestra, the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and Doc Severinsen's big band. Barbara's even crossed over on rare occasions into the mainstream media, doing a Tonight Show turn with Jay Leno, singing on the soundtrack of Denzel Washington's flick, The Hurricane, and communing in concert with everyone from Tony Bennett to Carlos Santana. Yet millions of hip listeners are unhip when it comes to her work. Barbara's out there pouring California champagne, and they're still drinking nasty muddy water. 

It's time to pop the cork, and toast this lady who got her start with R&B bandleader and showman deluxe, Johnny Otis. Barbara still works with the drummer, talent scout, chef and "Hand Jive" man from time to time. She can sing hard blues and R&B like nobody's business. The wailing "Sundown" is so much fun it hurts, while Barbara's impressions of Joe Turner and Cleanhead Vinson on "Chains Of Love" are dead-on and a stitch. Rich Little couldn't have nailed those groovy guys any better. 

Morrison's equally impressive in sophisticated jazz chanteuse mode, her sensitive streak in full flower on a pining and soulful, "Don't Go To Strangers" With Houston Person in the house, it's one of two terrific salutes to the late, great Etta Jones, the other being the album closer and Etta's typical set-closer, "I'll Be Seeing You" Morrison may well remind listeners of the ever-underappreciated Etta Jones, and also of that "slick chick on the mellow side" Dinah Washington . Like those grand ladies that preceded her, even Morrison's loveliest ballad work has a bit of grit, an indigo streak. 

Speaking of indigo streaks, the blues infiltrated every corpuscle of Junior Mance many decades ago, beautifully coloring his subsequent work with a "Who's Who Of Jazz" A Chicago native, now aged 76 and obviously still in his prime, Julian Clifford Mance's resume includes work with Gene Ammons, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, the Johnny Griffin/Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Quintet, Coleman Hawkins, Max Roach, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, and the aforementioned Dinah Washington. Junior was also part of his old Army buddy, "Cannonball" Adderly's first quintet. And he's even authored a book titled, How To Play Blues Piano. Is anyone better qualified? No way! 

Houston Person is no stranger to discerning soul jazz crowds, in his multiple roles as saxophonist, bandleader, talent scout, songwriter, and prolific record producer. Person's been called a "working class hero" a "legend of acid jazz"and "the natural heir to the Boss Tenor crown worn so long and so well by Gene Ammons" 

Thirty-plus years on the road with Etta Jones, plus studio work with Ernie Andrews, Dee Daniels, and other tres cool singers, prepared him perfectly for the task at hand. Just turned 70 and busier than ever, Houston's got the meatiest horn sound around.
A pro since 1949, bassist Earl May should be much better known. He made the scene at that bebop mecca, Minton's Playhouse, understudied to Charles Mingus, appeared notably on the tender and timeless Lush Life album by John Coltrane, and anchored the Billy Taylor Trio throughout the 1950s. Since those heady days, May has been heard with Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Frank Foster, Dizzy Gillespie, Cedar Walton and singers of all stripes. He's laid a firm foundation for Cab Calloway, Linda Hopkins, Ruth Brown, Charles Brown, Dave Van Ronk, Phyllis Hyman, and Jon Hendricks, and done double duty as musical
director/arranger for Gloria Lynne.
Rounding out the rhythm section par excellence is Jackie Williams, whom you may have heard on recordings by Bobby Short, Milt Hinton, Benny Waters, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, and Doc Cheatham, among many others. Williams was recently featured at a wildly successful Yale University summit session concert
called "The Whole Drum Truth" alongside Ben Riley, Albert "Tootie" Heath, and Ed Thigpen, in a landmark all-percussion ensemble. Long before that New Haven triumph, trumpet great Bobby Hackett called Jackie "my favorite drummer."
This is a supporting cast even Robert Altman might envy. Still, the focus is squarely and happily on Barbara Morrison - - the platinum blonde who's truly having more fun. She swings harder than Joe Frazier as she scats and scampers through "Take The A Train" bends notes like Turkish taffy on "Mean to Me" and raises holy hell and the roof with "Sundown." If it's true that "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" then maybe it's time for Barbara to finally hit it big, "At Last"

Tom Surowicz
Tom Surowicz contributes regularly to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and hosts "Monday Evening Jazz" on KBEM-FM.