When the Tape Sat in the Vault
Soul Burnin' arrived four years late, a reminder that timing matters as much as talent in jazz.
Soul Burnin' is a strange record — not because of what's on it, but because of when it arrived. Red Garland recorded these sessions in 1960 and 1961, but Prestige didn't release the album until 1964, by which point the jazz world had moved on to other concerns. That delay haunts the whole project. You can hear freshness in the playing, a mid-period Garland working through standards and originals with focus and swing, but there's also a sense of incompleteness, of music made for a moment that never quite came.
The album sits in the middle of Garland's career — not early enough to feel like discovery, not late enough to carry the weight of retrospection. The piano playing is solid and reliable, what you'd expect from someone who knew his way around a trio date. The bonus track from 1959, lifted from Satin Doll (1971), gives a glimpse of what was happening in the studio before these sessions, though it only underlines how much waiting happened between the recording and the release.
Allmusic and The Penguin Guide both settled on three stars, which tells you something: this is competent work, nothing wrong with it, but nothing that demanded to be heard either. Soul Burnin' works best for listeners already invested in Garland's catalog, people who want to fill in the gaps and hear him working steadily through material that mattered to him. It's not a starting point, and it's not a peak. It's a recording that finally found its way to an audience that had largely moved past the moment it was meant for.
Who's playing
John "Peck" Morrisondouble bass
Sam Jonesdouble bass
Red Garlandpiano
Oliver Nelsonsaxophone
Richard Williamstrumpet
Charlie Persipdrums
Art Taylordrums
Where next?
More by Red Garland
All 26 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
