Artist: Horace Parlan
Album: Headin' South
Genre: Hard Bop
Label: Blue Note
Released: 1960/1993
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Headin' South (Parlan) - 4:31
- The Song Is Ended (Berlin) - 5:55
- Summertime (Gershwin) - 6:01
- Low Down (Parlan) - 5:30
- Congalegre (Barretto) - 4:24
- Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington-Gordon-Mills) - 5:29
- Jim Loves Sue (Jamal) - 4:34
- My Mother's Eyes (Gilbert-Baer) - 5:22
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- Personnel:
- Horace Parlan - piano
- George Tucker - bass
- Al Harewood - drums
- Ray Barretto - conga
On the surface, Headin' South is another set of bluesy soul-jazz, but it actually finds the Horace Parlan trio stretching out a little. Adding conga player Ray Barretto to his usual rhythm section of bassist George Tucker and drummer Al Harewood, Parlan decides to take chances with his standard-heavy repertoire. "Summertime" features some evocative bowing from Tucker, and the solo sections on "The Song Is Ended," "Prelude to a Kiss," and "My Mother's Eyes" offer probing, intriguing tonal textures that make the selection of Ahmad Jamal's "Jim Loves Sue" understandable. Barretto's "Congalegre" is a fun, Latin-inflected number, and Parlan's "Headin' South" is a strong, swinging blues, but the slow blues "Low Down" is nearly undone by his incessant circular arpeggio, which lasts for over a minute. Still, that's not nearly enough to sink the record, which is another understated but solid effort from Horace Parlan.
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine