Billboard : 10/20/1958
Two stars

Down home and funky is this Soul Stirrin’ set featuring Bennie Green on trombone, supported by J. & B. Root on tenors, S. Clark on piano, I. Isaacs on bass and E. Jones on drums. Green blows with drive on this set, and the others come through nicely. Altho little new is said here it makes for good listening.

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Cashbox : 11/08/1958

Trombonist Green and his five man backing brood and colorfully on a well-recorded 6-tune session. Things start off with a funky, sometimes kidding take on the original title tune, and go on to some very cleanly arranged (all scoring by Melba Liston) stints. There’s a lot to listen for here.

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San Francisco Examiner
C.H. Garrigues : 11/23/1958

Green‘s trombone is unusual, incorporating much of the “down home” feeling of the traditional trombone so that one feels Bennie is about to slide into tailgate style. But he never does; the content remains basically modern. The result is unusual and interesting – much off the beaten path of recent east coast stylings but not quite strong enough to set a style of its own. Recommended for a listen.

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Down Beat : 12/11/1958
Martin Williams : 3 stars

There is rather a range on this LP, from burlesque through some of R&Bish riff-mongering to some good jazz playing.

Soul is going to shock some people who will call it a parody of gospel, but seems to be Babs Gonzales‘s wonderfully raucous dig at some of the extremes of the gospel-derived “funky” style. Cook (in effect another We Wanna Blow up-tempo blues) quickly becomes a parade of stock phrases (with Ammons interpolating, riffing, borrowing Prez-isms, and near-squealing) moved along by a kind of tongue-in-cheek spiritedness, and (as on all the tracks) fine swing. Doomed sounds more like a lullaby for The Yearning, and Ammons uses a bit of slip sentimentality in his section.

Root plays tastefully in that sort of basically Young-ish style (with more vibrato and more hardness) that was prevalent in the mid-40s, and some of his phrasing is admirably clean and fluent.

Several times here the jazz player that Ammons was certainly shows through the near-hokum player he has become.

No matter how often he has heard it, one is always struck with Green‘s trombone sound. Here it seems to have a bit less edge than before, though that may be the recording. As always he swings surpassingly and announces himself strongly, and that announcement is always with musical feeling, never with affectation or bravura self-dramatization. The ballad That’s All makes one realize again how his way of just playing his notes has influence so many and so much. There, on Doomed, Mambo (a good use of the Jeepers Creepers changes), and Pearl he is playing jazz well. Unquestionably he has constructed better lines on records than here… but he doesn’t just make notes. He can play.

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Liner Notes by Jack Walker

Modern day usage – particularly in reference to modern day jazz – permits the happy use of the graphic and appropriate definition “Boss ‘Bone” to sum up the highly imaginative and excitingly polished artistry of trombonist Bennie Green in this tremendous package of Jazz… and indeed, a more apropos title than Soul Stirrin’ is not to be found in all the dictionaries and thesauri in the English library. There is certainly a great deal here in this grouping that is stirring and soulful and, at the same time, soul stirring as you will hear and feel immediately.

The aficionado of contemporary jazz insists – and rightly so – on inventiveness, daring, newness, message, and soul in his dish of sounds. As dished out here by Fluke (as many of his intimates call Bennie Green) and his group, Soul Stirrin’ provides generous servings of all these vital ingredients.

ABOUT BENNIE GREEN:
Chicago-born and Trummy Young-inspired Bennie Green is by no stretch of the imagination a stranger to the jazz scene… he’s been an integral part of the kaleidoscopic picture of modern sounds since Budd Johnson discovered him for the Earl Hines aggregation back in 1942 in Chicago. In this fertile surrounding he worked with an impressive roster of first rate sidemen – was both influenced and tutored by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie. Bennie found his footing with the Hines band.. and got his exposure via a three year stint under Charlie Ventura‘s “baton.” He is perhaps best remember for a whole discography of outstanding solo segments with Ventura’s group, exhibiting his now muchly developed ability to ad lib and invent with remarkably good taste. Fluke returned to the Earl “Fatha” Hines fold in 1951 for a two year stay and then flung himself full-force on the scene fronting his own combo. He was immediately recognized as “belonging,” creating what jazz critic Leonard Feather calls a “…swinging excitement sometimes associated with the Jazz At The Philharmonic school of jazz, though more clearly defined and organized…” Whether he’s cooking with an extrovert way-out and swinging opus, or soul searching with a cool thing, or improvising on a standard, the Bennie ‘bone is boss! A more complete biography of Bennie Green can be found on the liner notes of Blue Note album BLP 1587 Back On The Scene, under the by-line of Leonard Feather… please look this up while we go on to talk about:

THE PERSONNEL:
Bennie, of course, is featured throughout Soul Stirrin’ with his immense and delightfully “clean” trombone sound. He’s literally surrounded by five thoroughly empathic musicians: Billy Root and “Jug” on tenor saxes; Sonny Clark on piano; Ike Isaacs, bass; and Elvin Jones on drums. This sextet provides an extremely tasty frame in which either Bennie, “Jug”, Billy Root or Sonny Clark, as the case may be, ad libs the tone pictures. Impeccable taste, provocative exuberance, and/or calculated restraint – Hall Mark of Bennie Green groups – are much in evidence here. Note too that the arrangements were created by Melba Liston, recently of the Dizzy Gillespie big band, who has already earned her niche as a trombone artist. The fact that Melba is both female and a lady does not interfere in the least with her insistence upon strong and virile voicing in these sextet arrangements.

ABOUT THE MUSIC:
With the exception of the standard That’s All (side 1, track 3) the selections in this album are all original jazz compositions… a circumstance which some buffs feel is more conductive to ultimate real expression.

Soul Stirrin’ (after which the entire program is dubbed) was composed by Babs Gonzales. It’s a moody thing which very tastefully incorporates a “just enough” fragment of vocal introduction voice by Babs and Bennie in the modern jazz idiom, then turns Bennie loose for solo sounds which nearly run the gamut in phrasing on this kind of thing. “Jug” follows with his tenor, then gives way to Sonny Clark’s pianistics. Billy Root follows Sonny with a solo chorus after which the ensemble picks up the figure and grooves it to a finish. It’s a tastefully funky work after which the entire album is patterned.

We Wanna Cook is an up-beat Bennie Green original highly reminiscent of the previously etched I Wanna Blow, and poignantly illustrative of Bennie’s favorite idiom. The choruses by “Jug” and Billy on tenors are both exciting and excitable. This band accurately illustrated what Feather calls the “JATP school of jazz” which Bennie so effectively organizes.

That’s All, the single standard item on the agenda, is a Haymes-Brandt work and serves to showcase the lamentful, brooding, easy, cool style that too is a part of Bennie Green’s artistry. He literally floats through this singing thing with the ease and mastery of, say, Sarah Vaughan – for his horn truly is singing. “Jug’s” ad lib which follows is also “something else.” Bennie improvises the finish.

Lullaby Of The Doomed is another Babs Gonzales original. It’s an extremely modern composition – aptly suited to chamber-music-jazz performance. It might well have been called “Soul Searching” for it provides the area in which the soloists seem to be doing just that… and in the doing they’re “saying something.” It’s a moody and beautiful bit of jazz and again Fluke and “jug” take some groovy solos.

On B.G. Mambo the sextet gently lifts you from that nostalgic state of mind in which Lullaby leaves one with a Latin-flavored Bennie Green original. Here again, the rhythm section works behind the soloists with that arduously restrained beat characteristic of Bennie’s taste.

The program is completed with Black Pearl penned by saxman Billy Graham. This melodic work, highly listenable, and – if you like – danceable, is the perfect icing. Bennie, “Jug”, Billy Root and Sonny Clark again and finally cook the album to a close; leaving one – as all gourmet fare should – with just enough… but wanting more.

It’s a happy thing for modern jazz to again have the prolific ‘bone of Bennie Green making the distinctive sounds of a particular and immensely talented jazzman.