Cookin

This first solo release from tenor sax player Junior Cook came at the midpoint of his six-year tenure with the Horace Silver Band. It's a relaxed affair, paced a couple of notches below the intensity of a typical Silver date. Still, with Cook's front-line partner in the Silver group - trumpeter Blue Mitchell - on board, along with Silver's rhythm section, the 1961 session has a definite affinity with the hard bop style of the more famous parent group. There are also links to the cool tones of Miles Davis' early-'50s Blue Note releases and to the transitional work of the mid-'50s Max Roach-Clifford Brown Band. If the overall approach is subdued, this generally works to the music's benefit by bringing out the finer points of Cook's and Mitchell's' playing…