Stanley Turrentine - Hustlin' (Blue Note)

Not to be mistaken as the long lost sixth entry in Miles Davis’ verb-centric Prestige cycle, though based solely on its title this classic 60s blowing date could fit snugly between Workin’ and Relaxin’. Turrentine & lovely wife Shirley Scott front their regular rhythm section of Bob Cranshaw on bass and Otis “Candy” Finch on drums. The wildcard is pinch-hit plectrist Kenny Burrell who sounds far more pugilistic than usual on the opener “Trouble,” a not so subtle send-up of the standard “Fever,” trading in his usual crisp single notes for sparser slashing strums. He cools out on later numbers like the title track where Turrentine quotes cleverly from “Blue Skies.” Scott shapes a plush featherbed of comping organ fills for her spouse to recline on and comes up with some crackerjack solos of her own. Virtually everything about this session substantiates the swaggering power of so-called soul jazz. Particularly the Francis Wolff cover photo featuring the gaping black maw of Stanley’s tenor mirroring the mouth of a Space Age Electrolux™ vacuum engineered specially to suck all your sadness and ill will away.