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Clifford Jordan: These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly

By Chris May
May 6, 2021
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Clifford Jordan: These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly

These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly is an oft overlooked item in the canon of tenor saxophonist

Clifford Jordan

saxophone, tenor
1931 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Clifford Jordan, whose chef d'oeuvre was undoubtedly Glass Bead Games (Strata-East, 1974), one of the most exalted jazz albums of its era. But These Are My Roots, which was originally released on Atlantic in 1965 and has in 2021 been reissued on vinyl by British audiophile label Pure Pleasure, is of more than passing interest.

The hard bop milieu from which Jordan emerged in the late 1950s was in close touch with the music's blues roots, but few hard boppers released albums which were as explicitly immersed in the idiom as this one by Jordan. The ten-track disc consists of nine pieces written by Leadbelly (birth name Huddie Ledbetter) and just one by Jordan. More than that, blues singer

Sandra Douglas

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Sandra Douglas is featured on two tracks, "Take This Hammer" and "Black Girl." Banjoist

Chuck Wayne

banjo
b.1923

" data-original-title="" title="">Chuck Wayne brings retro authenticity to eight tracks. The rest of the band is top-dollar hard bop: trumpeter

Roy Burrowes

trumpet
b.1926

" data-original-title="" title="">Roy Burrowes, trombonist

Julian Priester

trombone
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Julian Priester, pianist

Cedar Walton

piano
1934 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Cedar Walton, bassist

Richard Davis

bass, acoustic
1930 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Richard Davis and drummer

Albert Tootie Heath

drums
1935 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Tootie Heath.

Among the handful of Jordan's near contemporaries who got as double-dipped bluesy as Jordan does here was bassist and composer

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus. So it was great fit when, in 1964, Jordan toured the US and Europe as a member of Mingus' band alongside reed player

Eric Dolphy

woodwinds
1928 - 1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric Dolphy, trumpeter

Johnny Coles

trumpet
1926 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Coles, pianist

Jaki Byard

piano
1922 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaki Byard and drummer

Dannie Richmond

drums
1935 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Dannie Richmond. Fortunately, while on the German leg of the tour, Radio Bremen recorded a two hour performance for broadcast. The concert—a stone steamer—makes up the first two discs in the 4xCD set Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975, which was released in late 2020 by Sunnyside. The third and fourth discs, recorded in 1975 with Mingus, Richmond, trumpeter

Jack Walrath

trumpet
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack Walrath, tenor saxophonist

George Adams

saxophone, tenor
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">George Adams and pianist

Don Pullen

piano
1941 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Pullen, is just as good. The Bremen recordings may only have made it to disc in 2020, but one is prime Jordan and both are essential Mingus.

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Track Listing

Side One: Dick��s Holler; Silver City Bound; Take This Hammer; Black Betty; The Highest Mountain. Side Two: Goodnight Irene; De Gray Goose; Black Girl; Jolly O The Ransom; Yellow Girl.

Personnel

Clifford Jordan

saxophone, tenor

Roy Burrowes

trumpet

Julian Priester

trombone

Chuck Wayne

banjo

Cedar Walton

piano

Richard Davis

bass, acoustic

Albert Tootie Heath

drums

Sandra Douglas

vocals

Album information

Title: These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Pure Pleasure

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