At first glance, this appears to be a very illogical album. Back in 1965, tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan recorded a tribute to the late folksinger Leadbelly. The date, originally cut for Atlantic and reissued by Koch in 1999, is actually more successful than one might expect. Jordan performs nine of Leadbelly's originals (including the hit "Goodnight Irene"), turning the music into jazz without lessening the impact of the melodies or their folk roots. Trumpeter Roy Burrowes, trombonist Julian Priester, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath are on most of the selections along with Jordan, while Chuck Wayne (on guitar and banjo) helps out on four tunes, and pianist Cedar Walton is on three. The fine young singer Sandra Douglass is excellent on "Take This Hammer" and "Black Girl." Overall, this project is an unexpected success -- one would not have thought that Clifford Jordan and Leadbelly had that much in common! - Scott Yanow
First released on Atlantic Records in 1965, in some senses this is an album decades ahead of its time. Indeed, some 30 years before Wynton Marsalis started his heavily-angled explorations of jazz's blues roots, Jordan's tribute to the iconic Leadbelly had got there first, looking both backwards to the music's history and forward to the concept of ‘re-imagining’ that's widespread today.
Like Marsalis's similar efforts it's something of a curate's egg. Although Jordan had served his time playing a fair bit of R&B in his earliest years, by the mid-1960s his leathery-toned tenor was more likely to be heard in Hard Bop surroundings, like the bands of JJ Johnson and Max Roach. Part of the inspiration for this album may have come from the saxophonist's time with Charles Mingus (who has always been keenly aware of jazz tradition), but nowhere within the grooves of These Are My Roots is there anything as irreverent as the bassist's ‘Jelly Roll.’
In fact, the programming of the album gives a somewhat false lead. The first couple of tracks, with banjo prominent in the rhythm section, do have a somewhat oil and water, boppers playing ‘olde time’, feeling (‘Dick's Holler’ sounds at times uncannily like the backing Georgie Fame received on ‘Bonnie and Clyde’), but within 10 or so minutes we're into solid modernism. Indeed, ‘Black Betty’ and ‘The Highest Mountain’, in particular, are highly skilful reworkings which display Jordan's talent for small band arranging as effectively as they showcase his playing. His sidemen also shine; the underrated Burrowes coming on like the Ellingtonian he then was, Priester doing his JJ bit and the rhythm team of Davis and Heath driving everything before them (hear ‘Black Betty’).
But does it all work? In part. Maybe not a wholly successful record then, but one to be applauded for both its boldness and foresight. Well worth checking out. - Simon Spillett / jazzwise.com
These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly is an oft overlooked item in the canon of tenor saxophonist 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 is featured on two tracks, "Take This Hammer" and "Black Girl." Banjoist Chuck Wayne brings retro authenticity to eight tracks. The rest of the band is top-dollar hard bop: trumpeter Roy Burrowes, trombonist Julian Priester, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Richard Davis and drummer 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. 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, trumpeter Johnny Coles, pianist Jaki Byard and drummer 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, tenor saxophonist George Adams and pianist 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. - Chris May / allaboutjazz.com
Tracks
01. Dick's Holler (H. Ledbetter/J.A. Lomax/A. Lomax)
02. Silver City Bound (H. Ledbetter/A. Lomax)
03. Take This Hammer (H. Ledbetter)
04. Black Betty (H. Ledbetter)
05. The Highest Mountain (C. Jordan)
06. Goodnight Irene (H. Ledbetter/J.A Lomax)
07. De Gray Goose (H. Leadbetter/J.A. Lomax/A. Lomax)
08. Black Girl (H. Leadbetter)
09. Jolly O The Ransome (H. Leadbetter)
10. Yellow Gal (H. Leadbetter/A. Lomax)
CLIFFORD JORDAN tenor saxophone
ROY BURROWES trumpet
JULIAN PRIESTER trombone
CEDAR WALTON piano
CHUCK WAYNE banjo
RICHARD DAVIS bass
ALBERT HEATH drums
SANDRA DOUGLAS vocals (3, 8)
Recorded February 1 & 17, 1965 New York City
Atlantic 1444 / Collectables COL-CD-6522