Don't Look Back (Remastered) Harold Vick

• 1 Don't Look Back 06:07
• 2 Melody for Bu 07:29
• 3 Senor Zamora 05:45
• 4 Stop and Cop 06:40
• 5 Lucille 09:25
• 6 Prayer 00:57
• Total Runtime 36:23

Info for Don't Look Back (Remastered)

Multi-reedist Harold Vick’s 1974 Strata-East album Don’t Look Back explores deeper grooves, marking a departure from the standard combos that defined his earlier releases on Blue Note Records and RCA Victor. Following a heart attack, Vick returned to his soul-jazz roots with a freer, more adventurous approach, and Don’t Look Back emerged as a standout release in his celebrated career. Featuring Virgil Jones (trumpet), George Davis (saxophone, flute), Joe Bonner (piano), Sam Jones (bass), Billy Hart (drums), and Kiane Zawadi (euphonium), this cult classic has been remastered from the original analog tapes and is now available as 24bit remaster for the first time.

One of the best-ever Strata East sessions! The album's a masterfully conceived session by reed player Harold Vick — best known to the world as the funky tenorist from albums by John Patton and Jack McDuff in the '60s, but emerging here as an incredibly sensitive soul jazz player, capable of turning out some incredibly sophisticated and emotional compositions. Vick produced and wrote all the material on the album. A treasure all the way through.

Harold Vick, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Virgil Jones, trumpet, flugelhorn (tracks 1–3)
Kiane Zawadi, euphonium (tracks 1–3)
Joe Bonner, electric piano, piano, percussion, tuba
George Davis, guitar, flute (tracks 1–4)
Sam Jones, bass (tracks 1–5)
Billy Hart, drums, percussion (tracks 1–5)
Jimmy Hopps, percussion (track 4)

Recorded November 1974 at Minot Sound Studios, White Plains, NY
Engineered by Eddie Korvin
Mixed and Mastered at Generation Sound Studio, New York, NY

Digitally remastered

Please Note: we do not offer the 192kHz version of this album, because there is no audible difference to the 96kHz version!

Harold Vick
One of jazz’s great unsung saxophonists, Harold Vick can be placed in a category with the likes of Booker Ervin, David “Fathead” Newman, Wilton Felder, and James Clay — hard-toned, aggressive, funky tenorists who placed an emphasis on the blues even as they embodied state-of-the-art bop-derived modernism. Although he led relatively few recording dates, Vick was held in high regard by other leaders, especially such ’60s-era soul-jazz organists as Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, and Big John Patton. Vick also performed and recorded with many noted R&B and jazz vocalists, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ashford & Simpson, Angela Bofill, Abbey Lincoln, and Lena Horne.

Vick was born in the same small North Carolina town — Rocky Mount — as pianist Thelonious Monk (his elder by 20 years). Vick started playing music at the age of 13 when his uncle Prince Robinson (a highly regarded tenor saxophonist who played with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and others during the ’20s and ’30s) gave him a clarinet. At 16 Vick took up the tenor and soon after began playing in R&B bands. In the ’50s Vick moved to Washington, D.C., and studied psychology at Howard University. He continued to play, mostly with R&B bands.

His work with such organists as McDuff and McGriff began attracting attention. By the mid-’60s, Vick was leading his own groups, featuring such players as trumpeter Blue Mitchell and guitarist Grant Green. In 1963, he recorded his first album as a leader, Steppin’ Out!, for the Blue Note label. Between 1966 and 1974 he led dates for the RCA, Muse, and Strata East labels. In 1972 he recorded with Jack DeJohnette’s band Compost, one of the drummer’s first efforts at leading a band.

By the mid-’70s Vick had essentially stopped recording as a leader. His career as a sideman flourished, however. He continued working with organists Scott and McGriff, singers Franklin and Charles, Dizzy Gillepie’s big band, and with R&B acts both in the studio and on the road. Shortly before his death in 1987, Vick recorded a pair of Billie Holiday tributes with singer Abbey Lincoln for the enja label. In 1998 Sonny Rollins paid tribute to Vick by composing and recording a tune titled “Did You See Harold Vick?” (Chris Kelsey, AMG)

This album contains no booklet.