Baby Face Willette Quartet
Face To Face (180Gm Analogue – Tone Poet)

Baby Face Willette’s musical fire burned brightly but only briefly, comprising four albums in under four years plus a couple of sidemen duties with Lou Donaldson and Grant Green, ‘Face To Face’ is a highlight of that brief recording career and dates from 30th January 1961.  The session features Ben Dixon on drums and Grant Green on guitar, with whom Willette had recorded the guitarist’s debut ‘Grant’s First Stand’ two days earlier plus tenor saxophonist Fred Jackson.  The album kicks from the off, the opening track ‘Swingin At Sugar Ray’s’ is a fast-paced stomper.  The mood is toned down for ‘Goin Down’ that positively exudes the Blues.  The only track, not composed by Willette, ‘Whatever Lola Wants’ has a finger popping groove and it features Jackson performing a honking R&B style solo before Willette unleashes his Hammond.  It is, however, only the hors d’oeuvre, to the album’s standout ‘Face To Face’, a stonking full-on Jazz organ Soul Jazz groove.  It fizzes, flies and burns all at once and is one of the greatest Blue Note organ cuts of all-time.  The positively funky vibe (in a Jazz sense) continues with the flowing ‘Something Strange’ that also cooks.  The band sound as if they are having fun throughout the session, though the tempo and feel drops a little on ‘High N Low’ though the album’s closer.  It is still a stomping number.  ‘Face To Face’ is a five-star debut and a must for all lovers funky Soul Jazz organ.  A corker.