Soul Street--Jimmy Forrest, King Curtis, Oliver Nelson

As I said in the note to 'Tin Tin Deo', those who heard Jimmy Forrest in person said the most dreaded position on stage is being another tenor player along side of him. In this cut, standing with jazz stalwarts, not amateurs by any means, guys who are more critically acclaimed, guys who got more studio time, guys you've heard of--from Jimmy's first flourish, you can sense they just want to go home. He continues his solo showing his harmonic complexity, incredible sense of rhythm and groove, the ability to move effortlessly from the beautiful to the honking blues, and the ability to build his solo. King Curtis follows, gets in and gets out as quickly as possible, and then fellow St. Louisan Oliver Nelson takes over, using the Nelson method. Oliver wrote about improvisation, saying that you begin with a two or three note theme, and gradually build with more notes and volume. For years there were alto players in St. Louis who were disciples of Nelson, all the while never having heard Jimmy Forrest, who lived just around the corner. Upon hearing Forrest for the first time, they always asked why they hadn't heard of him before, shaking their heads in awe.