The name Young Guns seems ironically amiss until one learns that this recording dates from 1968-69 when organist Gene Ludwig was thirty years old, guitarist Pat Martino twenty-three and drummer Randy Gelispie somewhere in that neighborhood, long before he became fondly known as "Uncle G." The organ trio was in its heyday then, and this one was caught on tape during an exciting live date at Club 118 in Louisville, KY. How many other such performances have been lost forever owing to the absence of a tape recorder or the failure to turn it on is anyone's guess. But this one, thank goodness, has been preserved for present-day ears to appreciate.
This live date, recorded at the Blue Note in 1999 in commemoration of Elvin Jones's 72nd birthday, was one of the drummer's last recorded performances before his death in 2004. Jones's Jazz Machine turns in an exciting program of nervy hard bop, with nods to both the mainstream and the avant garde. The band, comprised of Michael Brecker and Antoine Roney on saxophones, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Darren Barrett on trumpet, Carlos McKinney on piano, and Gene Perla on bass, displays an impressive sense of group interplay, while not skimping on brio in the solos.