Rudolph Johnson – Spring Rain (Remastered) (1971/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:39 minutes | 899 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Black Jazz Records
“It was a time when the reigning U.S. label for jazz was CTI. The early 1970s also saw another label hit the streets, and with Rudolph Johnson’s Spring Rain, Black Jazz offered a kind of counter to the CTI Sound. Airtight and with little or no reverb, it was an even starker contrast to yet another new label of the time, Europe’s ECM Records. And, with 1971’s Spring Rain, we heard what now sounds even more vibrant, a resonant recording quality that found everyone from Ray Pounds’ drums peppered and punctuated with just the right amount of sizzle, akin to what Billy Cobham, Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd were doing over at CTI. Likewise, Reggie Johnson’s rich, fat bass and John Barnes’ crystal-clear piano are also all over these songs. But, it’s the main attraction, tenor saxophonist Rudolph Johnson, who sounds like a well-bred catalog of stylists, from Eddie Harris and his trademark sass and spunk-funk to Charles Lloyd before Lloyd sounded like the tenorist we’ve come to know, with traces of John Coltrane thrown in for good measure. It’s a composite where the man still comes out sounding like himself.” (John Ephland)
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Rudolph Johnson – Time and Space (1976/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:14 minutes | 998 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ovation Records
Rudolph in the mid 60’s worked with organist Jimmy McGriff all over the east coast but then moved to L.A. There are some sideman appearances scattered around but he did work and tour with Ray Charles in the 70’s and early 80’s. I did finally meet him here in Vancouver where he was appearing with Ray at the Cave Supper Club. Rudolph and I had a late meal after his Charles gig one night and we exchanged numbers and laughed about how we had never met considering that we frequented many of the same spots. He told me that he practised meditation (he didn’t drink or ever use drugs of any kind) and also practised his horn 6 to 8 hours a day. As he told me, “you’ve only got so much time here (on earth) and you’ve got to make it count every minute”. That was our only meeting. I must also say that he blew the roof off the Cave during his few solo spots with the Charles’ band.
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