Early in his career, Kenny Burrell was recorded extensively by Prestige and Blue Note as a hard-bop blues guitarist. His initial recordings were jazz-blues albums with a variety of different instrumental configurations. These LPs included All Night Long, All Day Long, K.B. Blues, Blue Lights Vols. 1 & 2, Blue Bash!, Bluesy Burrell and Midnight Blue.
One of my favorite Burrell blues album is the lesser-known Earthy, recorded in January 1957 for Prestige. The musicians assembled for the session were part of Prestige’s rotating studio all-stars, this time featuring Kenny Burrell (g), Art Farmer (tp), Hal McKusick (as), Al Cohn (ts), Mal Waldron (p), Teddy Kotick (b) and Ed Thigpen (d).
The first two tracks were by Waldron, the next two by McKusick and the last, a 14:33 minute blues jam by Burrell. The musicians chosen for the date are absolutely terrific together: Burrell swings throughout, Farmer adds his gentle lyrical approach, Cohn and McKusick are saxophone swingers with heart, Waldron’s piano is deeply soulful, and Kotick and Thigpen are on the money throughout. Interestingly, this is the only album on which Kotick and Thigpen recorded together.
Tracks:
Earthy (Mal Waldron)
What’s Not (Waldron)
I Wouldn’t (Hal McKusick)
The Front Line (McKusick)
Dayee (Kenny Burrell)
In 2016, Kenny Burrell suffered a serious accident following his 85th birthday concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The result was a long, ongoing recovery that prevented him from performing. This led to significant financial hardship and medical debt.
His wife, Katherine, launched a GoFundMe campaign in 2019, but no further news surfaced regarding Burrell’s current condition, the family’s financial standing and whether support arrived to get the Burrell family through this period. I have emails out.
To buy Kenny Burrell’s Earthy, go here.
Here’s the complete album at YouTube (ignore “Side A”)…
A brilliant guitarist!