Blue Note

Why Jackie McLean's various Blue Note sessions from 1964-66 never received more notice will always baffle me. (Those of you fortunate enough to own the Mosaic set know what I'm talking about!) Half of those six sessions weren't even issued until the 1970s, and for years only "Right Now" was available on CD (see my review).

The title to this review refers to the incredibly melodic lines Thad played here. His trumpet style was extremely light and melodic and he was perfectly in control of his bebop chops. The sound of excellence. Overall his playing was very balanced of great artistic quality and fully entertaining. This session from 1956 is quite good. The presence of Tommy Flanagan e Kenny Burrell are welcome.

Recorded in 1960, Freddie Hubbard's Open Sesame is not only a very good CD: it dramatizes history in the making. The trumpeter was not unknown then, but he was still in his early years; so was pianist McCoy Tyner, for whom a momentous association with John Coltrane was just around the corner.

The super famous Congregation with the ultra cool Andy Warhol cover has finally been reissued in the Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note series. In this album the Griff played with some very good pals, Sonny Clark (piano), Paul Chambers (uprightbass that he played even with the arch in his solos), Kenny Dennis (drums).

Eric Dolphy was among the most daring, impassioned and technically assured improvisers to come of age in the 1960s.

This 1963 album was an exciting, innovative fencemender that drew together the warring factions of the hard boppers versus the avant gardists. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's roots reached back into the Forties where he learned from Bud Powell and Charlie Parker.

Blue Note's version of experimental jazz in the '60s was rooted in tradition and played with uncanny empathy and a looseness that belied the precision and intricacy of the music. These four varied compositions could not have been played by anyone other than Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee, and Tony Williams with anywhere near the same results.