Reuben Wilson

Love Bug is the second Blue Note album by organist Reuben Wilson, recorded in March 1969 and released the same year, after his 1968 debut On Broadway. It is late-1960s soul jazz at full strength, mixing funky Wilson originals with R&B hits of the day. The quintet puts two of the label's great horn players in front of the organ groove.

The session took place on 21 March 1969 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, produced by Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. Wilson leads Lee Morgan on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor saxophone, Grant Green on guitar and Leo Morris, later known as Idris Muhammad, on drums. There is no bassist on the six original tracks, so the organ carries the bass lines.

Wilson's Hot Rod opens the record on a tight, danceable beat, and his title track and Back Out stretch past eight minutes each, with room for Morgan, Coleman and Green to solo. Among the covers, the Gamble and Huff song I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, a hit for the Supremes with the Temptations, gets a bright, punchy reading. Bacharach and David's I Say a Little Prayer, a hit for Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, becomes an eight-minute vamp, and Stormy is taken in a softer mood.

On AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine judged that Wilson matched neither Larry Young's vision nor John Patton's fire. He added that the record "nevertheless remains quite enjoyable". It remains one of the standout soul jazz sessions Blue Note made at the end of the decade.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD from Universal Music Japan (UCCQ-9683, 2024), remastered by Kevin Gray and presented in a jewel case with obi. It holds the six tracks of the original LP, without the bonus track added to earlier CD editions.