Sound rollers like wave breakers, blues and gospel muscle power at its absolute peak: a live album by Les McCann from the late 60s is one of the best things he has ever done.
Les McCann is one of those jazz pianists who transform their instrument into an orchestra by shaking double octaves from the wrist, turning block chords into sound rollers that roll over the harmonic changes like breakwaters. If you then have a bassist on the side who knows how to catapult counterpoints into walking bass lines and a drummer who listens so closely that the snare and cymbals push forward like spray right behind the chords, the groove works like a hammer. Soul jazz has always been more blues and gospel than midcentury modern. Because ecstasy and rapture always lurk in blues and gospel, these types of piano trios had the status of rock bands in the nightlife of American cities during the 1960s.