Junior Cook (tenor sax), Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Horace Silver (piano), Gene Taylor (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums). From the album Blowin’ the Blues Away (1959).
Gene Taylor was an American double bassist influenced by Oscar Pettiford and Ray Brown. He began his musical career in Detroit and belonged to the Horace Silver group from 1958 to 1963. Then he was a member of the Blue Mitchell quintet until 1965 and then toured and recorded with Nina Simone. He worked as a music teacher in New York, played with Judy Collins and made numerous television appearances with Simone and Collins. He died in 2001 at the age of 72.
Sister Sadie was a bad girl, but she fell in love with a young man who rejected her. Since then she has never been the same, she spends her days wandering around with her mind blank and looking into the empty space with a frown.
The theme has a cheerful and contagious melody. Mitchell begins his solo with energy and imagination. Cook follows with a more moderate melodic line ordering his ideas while Mitchell accompanies him underneath. Then Silver enters with a rather quiet solo incorporating pleasant phrases. The group then plays a pre-established arrangement mixed with short Cook solos until the theme is re-exposed.
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