Larry Young - Mother Ship (Blue Note Tone Poet Series)

Larry Young recorded Mother Ship in 1969 and then watched it sit in the Blue Note vaults for more than a decade, which makes this 180-gram Blue Note Tone Poet Series pressing feel like a long overdue victory lap.

By then Young had already reshaped what the Hammond organ could do in jazz. Where most organists leaned on churchy blues, he followed John Coltrane's modal path, and his landmark Unity had shown the instrument could float as freely as a saxophone. Soon after this session he would plug into the fusion explosion with the Tony Williams Lifetime and Miles Davis.

Mother Ship catches him right on that threshold. Lee Morgan brings his bright, biting trumpet, Herbert Morgan adds a dark-toned tenor, and Eddie Gladden keeps the drums loose and restless, while Young handles the bass lines on the organ himself. From the title track through "Street Scene," "Visions" and "Trip Merchant," the music moves between hovering modal passages and harder-driving stretches where the whole band leans forward.

It's a fascinating snapshot of a player stretching hard bop toward something more cosmic, without ever losing the groove.

For anyone drawn to the adventurous side of late-sixties Blue Note, this long-hidden session is an essential find, and a reminder of how far ahead Young was thinking.