Orwgan trios and quartets were ubiquitous by the mid-1960s. In African American neighborhood bars and clubs up and down the East Coast, throughout the Rust Belt and points far beyond, Jimmy Smith-inspired organists and bands pumped out grits ’n’ gravy blues, swinging standards, funky grooves, and ballads. Nothing fancy; social music for the Black working class. That’s nothing to take for granted—the potency of this music has been underappreciated by the critical establishment.
Still, guitarist Grant Green, organist Larry Young, and drummer Elvin Jones had something more adventurous in mind when they gathered at Rudy Van (Blue Note) sounds as up to date as that morning’s newspaper. To the Smith template of bebop and soul jazz, the trio adds the rhythmic and harmonic developments of the previous decade, culminating in the interactive postbop of the John Coltrane Quartet. Green, Young, and Jones made organ jazz swing in the present tense.
