COMMUNITY BUILDER
Kenny Burrell had been mulling a concept record focused on the blues for about a year before entering engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on January 8, 1963. At 31, the Detroit-born guitarist envisioned an LP that would sustain a moody, after-hours expression with relaxed tempos and an intensity that simmered rather than boiled. Burrell wrote all the music, save the Don Redman chestnut “Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You.” The guitarist channels the spirit of the Black Bottom neighborhood of his youth, where the blues encompassed not just one idiom but many, each with a different avatar— Basie, Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker. Burrell even sketched a potential cover design. It featured the title Midnight Blue rendered in block letters with the word “Blue” colored blue and taking up most of the cover. Blue Note owner/producer Alfred Lion liked it enough to give to his ace graphic designer Reid Miles to complete the final cover based on Burrell’s idea.
Midnight Blue, a nexus of soul-jazz and hard bop, ranks as one of Burrell’s greatest masterpieces. The music offers solace and rejuvenation. The sympathetic cast includes tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, Detroit bassist Major Holley, drummer Bill English, and percussionist Ray Barretto. The 12-bar blues “Chitlins Con Carne” slithers out of the box with an insinuating bass vamp and a Latin beat adorned with conga drums; Burrell and Turrentine play the theme in unison, but the guitarist drops in a repeated chordal riff between phrases that deepens the groove. Burrell structures his solo with similar call-and-response phrasing, assuming the role of both preacher and congregation. “Soul Lament,” a beguiling solo guitar piece in E minor without improvisation, unfolds as a wistful elegy; Burrell conjured the piece on the spot in the studio.
Like all master jazz musicians, Burrell’s personality starts with his tone. Instantly recognizable, it’s a singing he forges a group sound defined by his soulful lyricism, which spreads among his bandmates and reaches out to listeners, inviting them inside the tent. Making music is an act of social engagement for Burrell. “Kenny always seemed to invoke community to me,” said guitarist Pat Metheny. “It was less about being the soloist and more about being the music, the band, the pocket.”
