Willis Jackson Quintet With Brother Jack McDuff And Bill Jennings - A One Day Session (2013)

For the first time, 14 tracks recorded by Prestige in a single session and released separately in five different albums. It also includes 2 tracks from a Fire single that was recorded two days later by the same group minus Tommy Potter.

Theres a style of playing tenor saxophone which, for lack of a better name, can be called Southeastern. Its a warm, extrovert way of playing, with a heavy two-beat rhythm that can rock you off your chair. Its not esoteric, obscure or subtleeverything is laid right on the line in a blues-drenched, afterbeat style. Among its major exponents is Willis Gator Jackson (1932-1987), whose playing has definite shades of latter-day Lester Young, and though he made a every effort at restraint, the inevitable demands of the hard-blowing Southeastern way were always paramount. In it Jackson exploited his big, round tenor sound to the full, swinging straight-ahead and powerfully on most tunes, which, when combined with his full-blooded treatment of the ballads, made his work readily identifiable.

The support comes from Jack McDuff, whose persuasive work on the Hammond organ is marked by his good taste and swinging phrasing, while in a fine rhythm section guitarist Bill Jennings contributes imaginative, slightly astringent single-string guitar solos throughout this unequivocally burning date.