BLP 4228

Blue Mitchell - Bring It Home To Me

Released - March 1967

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 6, 1966
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Harold Mabern, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

1678 tk.8 Port Rico Rock
1679 tk.14 Portrait Of Jennie
1681 tk.23 Gingerbread Boy
1682 tk.24 Bring It Home To Me
1680 tk.30 Blues 3 For 1
1683 tk.31 Blue's Theme

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Bring It Home to Me	Jimmy Heath	January 6 1966
Blues 3 for 1	Blue Mitchell	January 6 1966
Port Rico Rock	Tom McIntosh	January 6 1966
Side Two
Gingerbread Boy	Jimmy Heath	January 6 1966
Portrait of Jenny	Gordon Burdge, J. Russell Robinson	January 6 1966
Blue's Theme	Blue Mitchell	January 6 1966

Liner Notes

IN her highly articulate notes for Down With It, Blue Mitchell's last Blue Note release to precede Bring It Home To Me, Phyl Garland makes some points that are worth considering. She talks of "a cerebral cult that has all but analyzed the life out of the music and tended to downgrade a musician once he has made the mistake of becoming too popular."

This is nothing new in iazz — the putting down of a popular musician by critics and certain fans — but where it was often justified in the past it seems to have reached a point of exaggeration lately. Very often in years gone by a singer or instrumentalist would make a deliberate attempt to capture a wider public by corrupting their true musical feelings. There are some that do it today but I'm not even concerned with them here. You don't have to be that popular today to be dismissed. (And what's wrong with being popular if you adhere to your own principals. Just as it is no crime for a jazzman to entertain people instead of boring them. This can be done without loss of self-respect contrary to the beliefs of some fanatics.)

Blue Mitchell is a man who is serious about his music. Not solemn but serious. His lack of pretense is refreshing in a period when many are falling into the trap of "respectability" that has plagued jazzmen for years. Today's strivers are getting closer and closer to modern classical music whish itself has been in a dull, dry room of dead "sounds" for years a room with pictureless walls.

For this, his third in the series of albums as a leader for Blue Note, Mitchell has with him almost constant musical companions of the past eight years, Junior Cook and Gene Taylor. The three men all joined Horace Silver in 1958 and left to form their current group in 1964. The other members of the regular Mitchell quintet are pianist Chick Corea and drummer Joe Chambers (he took over from Al Foster in mid-1965) but in this session, Blue, Junior and Gene are joined by special guests Harold Mabern Jr. and Billy Higgins. Billy is practically Blue Note's house drummer, and Harold has been turning up at the piano with increasing frequency on the company's dates of late. Although the Mitchell men had not recorded with their guests before, they were familiar with them through gigs and sitting-in.

Another old associate of Blue's contributes strongly to this set. Tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath is a fine writer who makes good use of jazz resources in an economical way. For the group's first album, The Thing To Do (4178), he concocted the title tune and lent his lovely ballad, Mona's Mood. Well pleased, Mitchell asked him for further additions to the band's book. Jimmy responded with Bring It Home (To Me) and Ginger Bread Boy.

Bring It Home starts carrying it in the front door, the back door, the windows and the chimney from the first chorus. Mitchell calls it a good example of the current blues rhythm. The solos open with Cook's open-throated cries and preaching phrases and continue with Blue's strong, brassy statements. Here you have the infectiousness of a beat in current vogue without the harsh noises of guitars at highest amplification. Mabern is a fine blues man as he demonstrates again in his solo.

Another kind of blues feeling is explored in Mitchell's Blues 3 For l. It's that of the blues waltz and Higgins makes the 3/4 pulse with all kinds of life and stuff. All the soloists are in a plaintive sort of blue groove — a wistful, reflective expression that still retains all the guts of the blues.

Port Rico Rock is by trombonist-composer Tom McIntosh and is what its title implies—Latin rock. The theme statement puts one in mind of the kind of ensemble sound that Latin big bands get. That's no small trick to accomplish but eight years of playing together can lead to a fairly good rapport and Blue and Junior certainly have got it together. In their solos there is no slackening of an expert combination of two idioms and they swing from their soles (souls).

Heath's second number, Ginger Bread Boy, implies a 2/4 feeling, something like a cakewalk, and makes good use of interludes. Blue is hot and ripping the second he starts to blow, and Junior, pushing off the interlude, is also in high gear early. No one can ever accuse Mabern of being a one-handed pianist. Harold digs in with all ten fingers in a deep-blue solo here, to be followed by the powerful Gene Taylor in his only featured spot of the set.

Every album needs a complete change of pace and Blue supplies this with a lovely reading of Portrait of Jennie. He says: "I enjoy playing a ballad as well as a groove number." This is one that he became fond of when he first heard Clifford Brown's recording with strings. He has been playing it for quite a while but never had the chance to record it before. Cook and Mabern split a chorus and then Mitchell returns for a final half-chorus. His ballad style has warmth and tenderness but is never saccharine.

The closer is, quite appropriately, Blue's Theme, an I Got Rhythm derivative that serves as the group's sign-off when they are appearing at a club. It's a riffy swinger of which Blue says: "Each time we play it it's a little different." Blue gets things started and then Harold comes in for some fine single-line and chordal work. After Billy gets to workout with the ensemble, Junior comes on like an astronaut. With telling comments from Higgins Blue's Theme and the album goes riding out to a satisfactory conclusion.

Blue Mitchell's group has achieved a certain amount of popularity. This album should increase the amount of recognition and enjoyment. Go ahead Blue. Get really popular. We won't put you down!

—IRA GITLER

75th Anniversary CD Reissue Liner Notes

When Horace Silver disbanded his longstanding quintet in early 1964, Blue Mitchell wasted no time in forming a new quintet with fellow bandmates Junior Cook and Gene Taylor. The chemistry that they had developed after six years with Horace Silver was uncanny. Blue Note signed the group which was completed by two relative unknowns: Chick Corea and Al Foster.

After two excellent albums with the working band ("The Thing To Do" and "Down With It!"), Alfred Lion decided to bring in pianist Harold Mabern and everyone's favorite drummer Billy Higgins for the third album "Bring It Home To Me." Alfred probably felt that their groove would increase the chances of having a hit. Both the title tune and "Ginger Bread Boy 'are Jimmy Heath contributions with a great groove and melody.

Another highlight on this album is Blue Mitchell's gorgeous version of "Portrait Of Jennie" which both Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard had done magnificently.

- Michael Cuscuna