Living Soul [live]

by Richie UnterbergerRecorded live at Count Basie's in Harlem on April 12, 1966, this is a decent trio set with Gene Edwards on guitar and George Randall on drums. The five tracks tend toward the long side, weighing in at a minimum of five minutes and, on the cover of Jimmy Heath's "Gemini," stretching out all the way to ten minutes. The relative lack of original material (only "Living Soul" is a Holmes composition) and the selection of several kinda corny standards to cover ("The Girl from Ipanema" and "Over the Rainbow") holds this back from the upper echelon of Holmes' recordings. Edwards is an underrated, sometimes fiery guitarist with a knack for choppy lines, as heard on "Blues for Yna Yna" (whose melody somewhat recalls "Summertime") and "Gemini." Living Soul and a studio session from 1966, Spicy, were combined onto one disc on the 1999 Prestige CD reissue of Spicy (as part of Prestige's Legends of Acid Jazz series).