Of Love and Peace cover

Of Love and Peace

Released

Can you play free jazz on an organ? Absolutely, and Larry Young does it on this 1966 release, the follow-up to the brilliant Unity and his third Blue Note album overall. The band features Eddie Gale on trumpet, James Spaulding on alto sax and flute, Herbert Morgan on tenor sax, and two drummers, Wilson Moorman III and Jerry Thomas. They play composer Morton Gould’s “Pavanne,” the second movement of a classical work called the American Symphonette No. 2, turning it into a 14-minute blowout; they also take the hammer and tongs to Miles Davis’s “Seven Steps To Heaven.” The title track and “Falaq” are Young originals, but they’re mostly platforms for free improvisation, the horns wailing like a half-drunk choir or taking screaming, high-flying solos as Young leans on the keys and the drummers do battle. If you’ve come in search of groove, seek elsewhere, but as an abstract exploration of musical possibility, Of Love & Peace is very much worth your time.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Man of the Light cover

Man of the Light

Zbigniew Seifert
Ballads cover

Ballads

Joey Baron, Enrico Pieranunzi, Marc Johnson
The Dark Tree cover

The Dark Tree

Horace Tapscott
Garden Party cover

Garden Party

Dopolarians
Re-Dial (Live in Hamburg) cover

Re-Dial (Live in Hamburg)

Quest, Billy Hart, David Liebman, Ron McClure, Richie Beirach
Soul Battle cover

Soul Battle

Oliver Nelson, Jimmy Forrest, King Curtis
Slow Life cover

Slow Life

Theo Travis
Concierto cover

Concierto

Jim Hall
Bitches Brew cover

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis