A Change Is Gonna Come

AMG Review of A Change Is Gonna Come

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

This album is an elegant mix of soul and sambas, interspersed with a pair of distinctly lues-focused pieces. Jack McDuff's Hammond B-3 organ surges and trills and rocks, at times seeming to talk as the lead instrument on renditions of works as different as Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" and Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." His calls and responses with the five-man brass section on several of the tracks here comprise another highlight, but even the slow numbers, such as "No Tears," offer virtuoso playing by McDuff. The tempo and texture shifts throughout keep this record continually interesting to the listener, and the range of influences, from jazz to gospel with side trips into the lues (culminating with a seven-minute epic in the latter genre), gives a lot of great playing for everybody.