It wouldn't be Vinyl day without Jimmy McGriff

It being Vinyl Record Day (and I've even got my vinyl shirt on; I didn't plan it that way, I swear!) I'm feeling a little uppity and need to toss another classic up here. First though I wanted to direct you to a great post over at Fusion 45 about the meaning of Vinyl Record Day. I thought the idea was cool when I read it this morning, but having read Fusion 45's post, I'm now totally on board and about to start pitching some greeting card ideas to the ever-holiday-conscious folks over at Hallmark. In sum, he managed to put his finger on that place where music and life meet and articulate a little about how songs, albums, and life experiences are pretty inseparable in the end. Good stuff.

So, I know I've posted a bunch of Jimmy McGriff already, and the truth is that I have a handful more ripped and ready to go, but this one just needed to get up here fast. It's definitely not one of the McGriff sides that you see floating around as much. "Live Where the Action's At!" was released in 1967 on VEEP records, produced by Sonny Lester, and oddly enough it doesn't even appear on most of the McGriff discographies posted on the triple-W. It's old enough that the liner notes refer to Jimmy as a "young wizard."

A young wizard McGriff was as this set is hot. It's a trio date, recorded live at The Front Bar in scenic Newark, NJ, that also features the bad-as-hell guitar work of Thornell Schwartz (who Melvin Sparks said could play exactly like Charlie Christian when he wanted to) and the funky drumming of Willy Jenkins (with that name you best play the drums funky).

Every tune is good. All of them. Not a stinker. It's a classic McGriff production in that the fade outs make you want to cry - Jimmy pulls out a few stops, steps down on the volume pedal, starts to roar and then the fade starts. I mean seriously, now that every last scrap of Miles Davis has been unspliced and reissued, can we get some of the full McGriff takes? Sonny Lester, are you listening? Make one of your box sets out of that stuff man! My favorites on this album are the covers; there's something about hearing McGriff rip it up on a familiar melody that just does it for me, and I'm certain no other jazz musician did better work with popular material. "Up Tight" and "Goin' Out of My Head" are totally fantastic.

Link in the comments.