Gil Melle - The Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions (2CD) (1998)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) ~ 383.84 Mb (CD1) + 361.50 Mb (CD2) + 14.03 Mb (Scans) | 02:05:19
Cool, Bop, Third Stream | Country: USA | Label: Blue Note (7243 4 95718 2 2)
Blue Note raids the back of its vaults for all four of Melle's long out of print 10" LPs, plus the 12" Patterns in Jazz, in order to place back in circulation a musician who had been nearly invisible to the jazz world for a good three decades. Though Melle's entertaining self-penned liner notes may be outrageously self-aggrandizing, this collection leaves little doubt that he was (and remains) a marvelous saxophonist and an intriguing composer who hasn't been given his due. On the early sides, Melle plays an erudite, relaxed, always musical tenor sax, and "Transition" marks his recorded debut on baritone, which he uses in a thoughtful, even quizzical manner for the remainder of the set.