Blue Mitchell - Collision In Black

BLUE MITCHELL
Collision In Black
1968
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Blue Note BST-84300

This record is highly sought after and for good reason. Blue's blowing had blown minds but three weeks earlier with his heavyweight work on the recently departed Jimmy McGriff's The Worm, which was just about to hit the shelves as Mitchell went into the studio to record Collision In Black. Perhaps due to that experience he opted for an even funkier soul-jazz sound than he had toyed with on his previous release and one that he would continue to explore with great results until his premature death in 1979. This session comes between Heads Up! and Bantu Village in the Blue Note Catalogue, although both the latter and Collision were not included in the otherwise comprehensive package of his Blue Note era put out by Mosaic a couple years ago. After Bantu, he joined and toured with Ray Charles and then the John Mayall Band, recording solo LPs on Mainstream during his downtime.

Not much out there as far as reviews except this one by Motown67 at Soul Strut:

In the 1960s Blue Mitchell began recording with Blue Note. There he often worked with Monk Higgins who did the arranging, and some of the song writing and production on Collision In Black. Higgins also played on the record along with Ernie Watts and Paul Humphrey. It was during this period and with this album that Mitchell began moving away from playing Bop to a more soulful and commercially aimed form of Jazz. On Collision In Black you hear some really early forms of Soul-Jazz such as the title track, Deeper In Black, Jo Ju Ja, I Ain’t Jivin, Digging In The Dirt, Who Dun It, Kick It and Keep Your Soul. Swahilli Suite, written by Higgins, is the best cut with its horn arrangement and solo by Mitchell. A very solid album for low-key Soul-Jazz.

Blue Mitchell - Trumpet, Horn
Monk Higgins - Organ, Piano, Arranger, Sax (Tenor)
Dee Ervin - Organ, Percussion
Miles Grayson - Percussion, Piano
Paul Humphrey - Drums
John Cyr - Percussion
Bob West - Bass
Al Vescovo - Guitar
Anthony Ortego - Sax (Tenor)
Jack Redmond - Trombone
Dick Hyde - Trombone
Ernie Watts - Flute
Jim Horn - Flute


1 Collision In Black
2 Deeper In Black
3 Jo Ju Ja
4 Blue on Black
5 Swahili Suite
6 Monkin' Around
7 Keep Your Nose Clean
8 I Ain't Jivin'
9 Digging in the Dirt
10 Who Dun It?
11 Kick It
12 Keep Your Soul Together

This classic is long OOP and has never been issued on CD but readers of Soundological have a chance to hear it HERE and HERE.