Lucky Thompson
I Offer You (Beast Retro 12052)

Another cool archaeological find from our friends at Beast Retro, I Offer You was sax man Lucky Thompson's last album before quitting the music business – and he must have meant it, because it's now over 25 years on and he's still never made a comeback.

This was a nice enough way to go out, I guess. It's a pretty mellow session – straight-ahead quartet stuff with Thompson on soprano and tenor sax, Cedar Walton on electric and acoustic piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums. I think that's almost the same band that made Clifford Jordan's Night of the Mark VII, and the vibe is similar. Very early 70s sound, but not slick like a Freddie Hubbard album from the same era.

It's pure jazz, kind of spiritual, but not quite what I expected from the cover and track listing. On the cover, a downcast Lucky is dressed in monk-like robes, and titles like "Aliyah," "The Moment of Truth," "Munsoon" and "Back Home From Yesterday" had me thinking this would be more along the lines of a Pharaoh Sanders album. But there's no yodeling or bells to be found, just good jazz wonderfully played.

Lucky is in fine form throughout; "Yesterday's Child" is a standout, very slow and extremely pretty. Walton's electric piano guides most of the songs – I actually like his work on electric piano more than the stuff I've heard by him on acoustic piano – and the whole set is very solid.

A version of "Cherokee" closes things up, the only real standard in the set, and it's done really well, though it does sort of underscore the second-tier caliber of the album. Not that there's anything specifically wrong about the album, but it just lacks the spark that makes great jazz records great – an undefinable characteristic that makes one say that Search For the New Land is amazing while I Offer You is very good.

It's all subjective, of course, and what's more, who's to say every disc you own has to be a masterpiece? Sometimes a set like this one really hits the spot, and considering Thompson's subsequent silence, we're "lucky" to have it at all, so shush up.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Jenny Lips