Larry Young

Into Somethin' is the first album Larry Young made as a leader for Blue Note, recorded in November 1964 and released in 1965. On it the organist from Newark turns away from the soul-jazz formula that had become attached to the Hammond B-3 and takes the instrument into modal territory, much closer to what John Coltrane was doing at the time than to the organ trios of the day. It is the first step of a run of six Blue Note albums that changed what the organ could do in jazz.

The quartet came together at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs on 12 November 1964, with Alfred Lion producing and Rudy Van Gelder at the controls. Young already knew guitarist Grant Green and drummer Elvin Jones: earlier that year the three had recorded the trio albums Talkin' About! and Street Of Dreams, both issued under Green's name. The new element is Sam Rivers on tenor saxophone, who plays on the first four pieces.

Tyrone, a Young original close to ten minutes long, opens the album with a loose theme whose melody Rivers handles with real care. Plaza De Toros is Green's only composition here and one of the most admired pieces on the record. Ritha, which closes the second side, drops the saxophone and returns to the organ, guitar and drums format of the Green sessions, now heard on Young's own terms.

Down Beat gave the album four stars in its 12 August 1965 issue. A year after this session Young recorded Unity, with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Jones again on drums, and that album is often seen as the fullest development of the ideas first set out here. The cover, designed by Reid Miles around a photograph by Francis Wolff, is one of the more striking of the period.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition from 2020 is all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.