I only saw pianist Eddie Harris one time in concert, never hearing his albums with The Three Sounds before, and after the show, my only thought was “How did I ever miss this guy’s recordings?” His perfect mix of jazz, gospel and blues was the work of a master chef that evening, and when I went back into his voluminous catalogue on Blue Note Records (of which this 4 disc set consists), I realized that I had been remiss in not digging into this swinging little trio.
Consisting of Harris, bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Bill Dowdy, The Three Sounds produced eight impeccably swinging albums on Blue Note records from 1958-61, all here and in order. Their ’58 debut hits the ground running, with Harris in deft and classy stride on rich romantic pieces like “Tenderly,” bluesy “Willow Weep For Me” or the soul grooved “Goin’ Home”. Their 1959 followup focuses on standards like the fun Latin gem “ Besame Mucho” and a graceful “Love Walked In” as well as Harris’ own “ Jinnie Lou”. The same year the three dig in for a session that includes a gorgeous “Robbin’s Nest” and a fun calypso’d “St. Thomas”. Two albums from 1960 have the gents bop hard on “Straight, No Chaser” and glide like Astaire on “It Could Happen To You” with Harris lighting the evening candles on “Lil’ Darlin”. There’s also a glorious one-off with tenor saxist Stanley Turrentine that has the team dig in deep for a drop dead gorgeous “Willow Weep For Me” and agonizing “Since I Fell For You”. Why didn’t they do ten more sessions like this?!?
1961 begins with deftly swinging pieces like the jumping “Here We Come” and romantic wooers such as “Our Love Is Here To Stay” and mixing gospel tunes such as “Sermonette” with pop standards including “Hey There” and traditional Americana as in ”You Are My Sunshine”. Very few bands could pull off sounding convincing on such a wide swath of genres, but his working team did, and like the best of variety shows, this set has something for everyone. Dig in!