ALBUM REVIEWS : **** BUNKY GREEN “Healing The Pain” <i> Delos : </i>

Based in Chicago for 30 years and now president of the International Assn. of Jazz Educators, Green has earned scant recognition for his Parker-inspired yet personal alto sax. The ballads are the meat of this season; as he says, “I shape and bend the harmonic structures to my own expressive ends.” This is true of “The Thrill Is Gone” (a 1931 pop song, not the B.B. King hit), also of “Who Can I Turn To” and “Goodbye.” Ed Bland, Green’s producer, contributed three themes from his score for last year’s PBS-TV version of “Raisin in the Sun.” To round out this well-balanced set, Green wrote two provocative originals. He has just the kind of sympathetic rhythm section he deserved: Billy Childs on piano, Art Davis on bass and Ralph Penland on drums.