Originally released in 1962 on the Pacific Jazz label, Inta Somethin' is a wonderful live session from the legendary trumpeter Kenny Dorham and alto sax great Jackie McLean, recorded live at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco in the winter of 1961. Featuring four standards bookended by two Dorham originals, the album also includes contributions from dynamic bassist Leroy Vinnegar amongst others.
One of Jackie McLean's earliest Blue Notes, Swing, Swang, Swingin' parts company with the vast majority of his output for the label by concentrating chiefly on standards (only one of the seven tunes is a McLean original). Perhaps as a result of Blue Note's more prepared, professional approach to recording sessions, McLean sounds invigorated here, catapulting each melody forward before launching into a series of impassioned improvisations.
Recorded in between his modernist masterpieces Let Freedom Ring and One Step Beyond, Tippin' the Scales finds Jackie McLean returning to a safer, more straightforward hard bop scenario for a short spell. Since the album wasn't really in keeping with the direction McLean was heading (and since that direction proved to be successful), it stayed in the vaults for 22 years before finally seeing the light of day in 1984. As one might expect, given the nearly universal quality of McLean's Blue Note output, Tippin' the Scales is solid from top to bottom, even if it's not nearly as forward-looking as its predecessor.
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was one of the few jazz players to come up through bebop and incorporate free jazz into his style. Even though A Fickle Sonance preceded McLean's intense 1962 album Let Freedom Ring, the playing remained in a swinging blues-oriented style, showing no hint of the direction his music was about to take. The sidemen on the date (Tommy Turrentine [trumpet], Sonny Clark [piano], and Butch Warren [bass]) prove to be an invigorating combination of musicians, however not as involved in the burgeoning free music as drummer Billy Higgins.
18 original albums on 10 CDs.
The early recordings of pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, as well as important publications by some eminent colleagues: Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams, Al Grey, George Coleman, Max Roach, Grant Green, Jimmy Heath, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Ron Carter, Eric Dolphy, and Kenny Dorham.
Tenorman Gene Ammons headed a series of notable studio jam session in the 1950s and this is one of the better ones. With such fine young players as trumpeter Idrees Sulieman, altoist Jackie McLean, pianst Mal Waldron, guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor, Ammons and his friends jam through four numbers all of which clock in between 11:59 and 13:01. The results are an accessible and often exciting brand of bebop.
When Ronnie Laws first started recording as a leader in 1975, one of the saxman's strongest allies was Wayne Henderson. That trombonist and founding member of the Crusaders (originally the Jazz Crusaders) was an expert when it came to combining the accessibility of soul and funk with the freedom of jazz, and his guidance proved to be a definite asset when he produced early Laws albums like Pressure Sensitive (1975) and Fever (1976). The popular Grover Washington, Jr. was a strong influence on Laws, whose appreciation of Mr. Magic asserts itself on everything from the funky "Let's Keep It Together" and the gritty "Captain Midnite" to Bobby Lyle's alluring "Night Breeze." This isn't to say that Laws was a Washington clone, or that he unaware of other soul-jazz saxmen like Eddie Harris and David "Fathead" Newman. Laws, in fact, was quite recognizable himself on both tenor and soprano.