Live in New York

AMG Review of Live in New York

Steve Leggett
All Music Guide

King Curtis and his bubbling, stutter-style tenor sax playing brought a touch of jazz and a whole ton of R&B to countless ock & roll tracks in the early '60s, and his funky edge is one of the reasons records by the Coasters, for instance, continue to sound good 40 years later. This historic live set, which was recorded by drummer Belton Evans as a reference tape at Small's Paradise in Harlem in mid-1961 and sat unheard until JSP released it on disc in 1985, catches Curtis fresh off of working with Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and the Coasters and sessions with the Isley Brothers and still some months away from tracking "Soul Twist," which came out on Enjoy Records in 1962. The sound quality here is not the best, but Curtis and the band (Al Casey on guitar, Paul Griffin on piano, Jimmy Lewis on bass, and Evans on drums) sounds lively and engaged, particularly on the infectious "Jay Walk" and the upbeat "African Waltz." It's a little bit jazzier than the typical Curtis outing, but then he was a much more versatile musician than many people realize (he did sessions with artists as varied as Lonnie Donegan and Andy Williams, and he was also a pretty solid electric guitar player and he could sing capably when he needed to), and if it doesn't quite add up to being an essential Curtis disc, it will still be of great interest to his many admirers.