Stick-Up!

Vibraphone master Bobby Hutcherson\'s 1966 release *Stick-Up!* is probably the jazz giant\'s most straightforward, swinging hard-bop album of the \'60s. While the heads of the tunes occasionally take a knotty turn, as on \"Black Circle\" and \"Blues Mind Matter,\" even the most complex cuts on the record quickly give themselves over to a visceral, steadily grooving feel and plenty of bop-based licks from pianist McCoy Tyner and sax man Joe Henderson. As for Hutcherson himself, he puts down his marimba mallets to concentrate strictly on the vibes here; *Stick-Up!* contains some of his most lyrical performances ever. On tunes like the insistently surging \"8/4 Beat\" and the simmering, blues-baked \"Verse,\" Hutcherson stretches out by reaching deep inside and tapping into his own soulful inner flow, proving himself to be jazz\'s quintessential poet of the vibraphone. It\'s a rare artist who can find greater sophistication in simplification, but Hutcherson has the process down cold.