Recorded in 1973 as a foray away from the Modern Jazz Quartet,
Milt Jackson's second entry on the CTI label is also one of its highlights. This is one of
Creed Taylor's finest productions both in terms of material and sidemen. Drummer
Steve Gadd, flutist
Hubert Laws, bassist
Ron Carter, and pianist
Cedar Walton accompany
Jackson on the majority of the album. Indeed,
Jackson's ability to swing funky is evidenced to delightful extremes on "Old Devil Moon," with a rolling cymbal shakeout from
Gadd, whose rim shots and tempo-pushing musculature are a sharp contrast to those of the MJQ's
Connie Kay. Likewise,
Laws, whose playing is usually over the top, stays inside melodic nuances here and provides
Jackson with an essential harmonic foil. And
Ron Carter is playing throughout with a popping edge he never had before or since. On
Jackson's own SKJ, recorded in December of 1972,
Don Sebesky conducted a jazz orchestra for
Taylor that included
Herbie Hancock,
Freddie Hubbard,
Billy Cobham,
Carter, a string section, a reed and woodwind and brass section, and a harp. Sounds sticky, eh? Hardly,
Jackson is pure Bags here, playing it blue-black and rolling out around the ends of the turnarounds into deep, funky, post-bop terrain. The orchestra is mixed way down and is added for texture so the sextet is what one hears most -- along with a burning
Freddie Hubbard solo. The other number of real note here is a ripping rendition of
Horace Silver's "Opus de Funk," which sprawls the slim harmonic edge, rolls it out on a carpet, and turns it inside on itself, before rolling through the blues to move the intervals into a sequence
Silver might not have considered when he wrote it, but which
Jackson reveals was in there all the time.