Sonny Rollins - Volume 2 (1957)

Note: the CD I listened to was the mono 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

Other than the sequential name and Rollins himself, this album has very little to do with its predecessor. Recorded four months after Volume 1 with different musicians and instrumentation, this album is noteworthy for the variety in material, a mixture of swinging original material, more angular modern jazz compositions from Thelonious Monk, and standards from the Great American Songbook. Monk wrote and plays on two tunes, providing his unusual phrasing and harmonies, while the remaining tunes with Horace Silver are more blues-inflected hard bop.

Something about this album makes me believe a great lineup isn't the same thing as a great album. Volume 2 is certainly not terrible by any means, but these days I prefer Volume One. It just feels more cohesive, swings harder, and takes advantage of more satisfying material. But ask me next month and I may say the exact opposite. That's the beauty of music.

Rollins - tenor saxophone
J.J. Johnson - trombone
Horace Silver - piano
Thelonious Monk - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Art Blakey - drums

Original liner notes by Robert Levin.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "another essential volume for the modernist collector."
• HiFi & Music Review: "most deeply fulfilling"
• Audio: "It is as complete a picture of Rollins, both from his most difficult and his more easily accessible angles, as is likely to be encompassed on one record."
• DownBeat (★★★★★): "something of interest (and quite often genius) on every track, may well be the wailing set of the year."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★⯪
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★⯪
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★☆

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Don't miss any of these six tracks, but my top picks are Why Don't I and Poor Butterfly.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Newk's Time (1959)
Volume One (1957)

Sonny Rollins - Volume 1 (1957)

Note: the CD I listened to was the mono 2003 Rudy Van Gelder Edition. The album was originally titled "Sonny Rollins" but the Volume 1 tag was added once Volume 2 was later released.

A straight-ahead hard bop album, combining blues-based themes and driving swing with the exploratory style of Rollins. At 26, Rollins had developed his own jazz vocabulary, Donald Byrd and Wynton Kelly were just starting out, and Max Roach was already an established figure in jazz circles. So you've got three different levels of experience forming a solid quintet. Byrd sounds fantastic and holds his own. It was the debut for Rollins on the Blue Note label, but he was releasing many seminal recordings on several labels at the time, including Saxophone Colossus (Prestige), Way Out West (Contemporary), and the Monk/Rollins recordings on the Prestige and Riverside labels.

Rollins - tenor saxophone
Donald Byrd - trumpet
Wynton Kelly - piano
Gene Ramey - bass
Max Roach - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather. 2003 liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "some of the most vigorous and creative blowing of recent months by the tenorman all the young cats are digging."
• CashBox: "Smooth work.
• DownBeat (★★★★☆): "Recommended"
• Audio: "the most important new voice on the tenor saxophone"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★☆
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★☆
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★☆

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Four originals by Rollins and a cover of How Are Things In Glocca Morra. Don't skip any.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Newk's Time (1959)

The Amazing Bud Powell. Vol. 2 (1954)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2001 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 7 bonus tracks. Originally released as 8 track, 10-inch LP in 1954, this album was reconfigured and re-released as a 12-inch LP in 1955.

This CD reverts back to the original 8 track sequence, then adds one extra track and six alternate takes. All tracks recorded at WOR Studios, New York City, on August 14, 1953. Curiously, this recording session was engineered by Doug Hawkins and not Rudy Van Gelder. It appears as a RVG edition having been remastered by Van Gelder in 2001.

Like Volume 1, this album is superb. The trio plays with a combination of precision and looseness (if that dichotomy is possible - evidence here suggests it is). I hear Powell thinking in real time, moving from his bebop roots to something new. The chord substitutions and extensions are fascinating.

Powell - piano
George Duvivier - bass
Arthur Taylor - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather. 2001 liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• DownBeat (★★★★★): "worth repeated listening"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★☆
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My top picks today are Beets And I, Collard Greens And Black-Eyed Peas, Polka Dots And Moonbeams, and I Want To Be Happy.

Bonus tracks: I’ve Got You Under My Skin is a great take and it's omission on the original release is obviously a matter of Blue Note having limited space on the 10" record. The other bonus tracks are alternate takes that simply illustrate that the label could have used any take and it would have been the right call.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Inner Fires: The Genius Of Bud Powell (1982)
The Amazing Bud Powell. Vol. 1 (1956)

Jimmy Smith at Club Baby Grand, Vol. 2 (1956)

Note: the CD I listened to was the mono 2008 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

If a little bit is good, more is better.

Smith - organ
Thornel Schwartz - guitar
Donald Bailey - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather. 2008 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, with favorites indicated:

	Title	Writer(s)
1	Caravan	Juan Tizol & Duke Ellington	✔
2	Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing	Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster
3	Get Happy	Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler
4	It's All Right With Me	Cole Porter	✔

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

The Best of Jimmy Smith (1988)	Midnight Special (1961)
Keep On Comin' (1983)	Crazy! Baby (1960)
The Dynamic Duo (1967)	Houseparty (1958)
Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)	The Sermon! (1958)
Home Cookin' (1961)	At Club Baby Grand, Vol. 1 (1956)

Jimmy Smith at Club Baby Grand, Vol. 1 (1956)

Note: the CD I listened to was the mono 2008 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

Smith's first live album, recorded on August 4, 1956 at Club Baby Grand in Wilmington, Delaware, just months after his first Blue Note releases. We're treated to Smith in a loose, exuberant club environment, where his astonishing technique is apparent. And, for the most part, the rhythm section gets the hell out of the way and lets Smith shine. More relaxed and less polished than Smith's studio records, sure, but it's solid work and, at times, electrifying.

Smith - organ
Thornel Schwartz - guitar
Donald Bailey - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather. 2008 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard (74 out of 100): "skillful modern stylings strapped to a fundamental, deep-rooted beat."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, with favorites indicated:

	Title	Writer(s)
1	Introduction	Mitch Thomas
2	Sweet Georgia Brown	Maceo Pinkard	✔
3	Where Or When	Rodgers & Hart
4	The Preacher	Horace Silver	✔
5	Rosetta	Earl Hines & Henri Woode

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

The Best of Jimmy Smith (1988)	Midnight Special (1961)
Keep On Comin' (1983)	Crazy! Baby (1960)
The Dynamic Duo (1967)	Houseparty (1958)
Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)	The Sermon! (1958)
Home Cookin' (1961)

Ike Quebec - Bossa Nova Soul Samba (1962)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2007 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with three bonus tracks.

According to a brief note in CashBox magazine, this album was the first Bossa Nova album released on the Blue Note label. Not particularly innovative, but quite good. Very similar to Getz albums of the time, except when Kenny Burrell gets a solo turn, then everything seems to kick up a notch.

Sadly, this was the last album Quebec recorded before his death in January 1963, at the age of 44, from lung cancer.

Quebec - tenor saxophone
Kenny Burrell - guitar
Wendell Marshall - bass
Willie Bobo - drums
Garvin Masseaux - chekere

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard (★★★★): "deserving of some attention."
• DownBeat (★★★½): "a pleasant, unpretentious set of pretty ballads played with assurance and quiet passion."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My favorites are Lloro Tu Despedida, Me 'N You, Shu Shu, Blue Samba, and Linda Flor. Unusual for the time, there's nothing on this album written by Jobim.

Bonus tracks: alternate takes of Loie, Shu Shu, and Favela.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Easy Living (1987)
It Might As Well Be Spring (1964)
Blue & Sentimental (1963)
Heavy Soul (1962)

Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' (1958)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS MONTH* (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 2 bonus tracks.

I shouldn't try to write about this album simply because the album title is basically the whole aesthetic in two words. Nothing is rushed and nothing is wasted; a perfect balance between swing and restraint. It's cool and it struts.

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff and 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Clark - piano
Art Farmer - trumpet
Jackie McLean - alto saxophone
Paul Chambers - bass
Philly Joe Jones - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard (★★): "The set moves and Farmer and McClean have good chances for solos."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, Cool Struttin' placed at #22 on the udiscover.com list of the 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The original album was only 4 tracks, two long tracks per side - the kind where everybody gets a lengthy solo turn. Of the four, my favorites are the title track, a Clark original, and the final cut, a rendition of Lover by Rodgers & Hart.

Bonus tracks: From the same recording session, we're treated to another Clark original titled Royal Flush and a cover of the Rodgers & Hart standard, Lover.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Sonny Clark Trio (1958)

---

*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.

Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (1958)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS MONTH* (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 1 bonus track.

Widely regarded as a landmark album of hard bop, although the credits might be a little misleading. As the High Fidelity review clearly states, Somethin' Else "is undoubtedly Miles Davis' record." Though officially credited to Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, the album famously features Davis, Adderley's boss at the time. In a rare act of generosity, Davis stepped into a sideman role, but his influence can be heard throughout. Davis didn’t just show up; he brought the moody, bluesy title track and reportedly handpicked most of the album's material. Overall, Somethin' Else tastefully bridges the gap between Milestones and Kind of Blue, cementing its legacy as an essential cornerstone of any jazz collection. With that kind of firepower, it's not surprising that Somethin' Else placed at #1 on the udiscover.com list of the 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums.

Adderley - alto saxophone
Miles Davis - trumpet
Hank Jones - piano
Sam Jones - bass
Art Blakey - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather and 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★★): "There's really not too much to say about this set. It's the result of five thoroughly professional jazzmen playing together and making it."
• High Fidelity: "it is undoubtedly Miles Davis' record."
• Stereo Review: "Intensely stimulating."
• Billboard: "perhaps one of the best of the year."
• CashBox: "Fine combo cohesion here."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: It's all good, but you just can't beat the first three tracks in that exact order.

Bonus track: Track 6 is a Hank Jones composition titled Bangoon which would have easily fit on the album, but I'm guessing was left off the original release due to time limitations.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

---

*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (1959)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS* MONTH (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 2 bonus tracks.

The album was originally self-titled, but later retitled Moanin' after the popularity of its opening composition.

For decades, Blakey exhibited an extraordinary gift for assembling young talent, encouraging them to write original compositions, and creating an environment where each musicians could develop their voice. In 1954, he said, "I’m gonna stay with the youngsters. When these get too old I’ll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active." Over time, Moanin' has emerged as the hard bop album most closely associated with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and many agree that it is one of jazz's essential recordings. Highlights include the writing of Bobby Timmons and Benny Golson as well as the playing of Lee Morgan. Blakey's energic drumming is just right in terms of moving things forward while bringing it all together.

Blakey - drums
Lee Morgan - trumpet
Benny Golson - tenor saxophone
Bobby Timmons - piano
Jymie Merritt - bass

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★): "There is nothing on this record that is really poor, except the Suite."
• High Fidelity: "provides a sound and solid jazz experience"
• Billboard: "It all swings and it can move."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, Moanin' placed at #5 on the udiscover.com list of the 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. The title track had previously been inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: I find myself agreeing with the quote from the DownBeat review: "There is nothing on this record that is really poor, except the Suite." My top picks are the title track and the 1946 standard, Come Rain Or Come Shine.

Bonus tracks: an alternate take of Moanin' and some studio chatter. Neither essential.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Free For All (1965)

---

*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.

Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off (1962)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2007 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 3 bonus tracks.

Hancock's debut as a leader at the age of 22. The album wasn't always well-received at the time by the critics (see below), but is now considered with more respect and appreciation. In my book, it's a fantastic, swinging hard bop album that features some legends in the group playing some outstanding compositions. Plus it's freakin' Herbie Hancock, Jazzer Laureate of the United States. (I just made up that title, but it should actually exist and Hancock should be so named.) He's still touring at age 86!

Hancock - piano
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Dexter Gordon - tenor saxophone
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "[Hancock's] work at the keyboard is impressive as are his talents as a writer."
• Stereo Review: "He is a forceful, well-organized pianist, but here he shows little stylistic originality."
• CashBox: "A nice showing."
• Downbeat (★★★½): "slightly disappointing...Still, there is much to recommend in this release."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: It's a brave move to include all original compositions on a debut album; I'd have guessed the label might have insisted on a couple of standards. But if you can write stuff like Watermelon Man and Driftin' plus the beautiful ballad Alone And I, why would you need anything else?

Bonus tracks: Alternate takes of Watermelon Man, Three Bags Full, and Empty Pockets.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Best of The Blue Note Years (1988)	Head Hunters (1973)
Round Midnight Soundtrack (1986)	Speak Like A Child (1968)
Lite Me Up (1982)	Maiden Voyage (1965)
Sunlight/Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1978/1979)	Empyrean Isles (1964)

Ike Quebec - It Might As Well Be Spring (1964)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2006 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

This album was recorded on December 19, 1961, but the LP wasn't released until 1964. In the meantime, Quebec tragically died of lung cancer in January 1963 at age 45. Delayed album releases happened fairly often with Blue Note in the '60s as musicians recorded many brilliant sessions while Alfred Lion calmly stacked tape boxes like a jazz leprechaun sitting on a pot of gold. Some records appeared years or even decades later. In any case, this is quality stuff and well worth a listen, regardless of year.

I always use the word "meaty" to describe Quebec's tone, but I'm getting out my thesaurus and opting for "luxuriant" in today's post. The program is relaxed, romantic, and perfect for late night listening. Pairs quite well with Quebec albums Blue & Sentimental and/or Heavy Soul. Organist Freddie Roach is the perfect band member, knowing exactly when to shine and when to support. I gotta tell ya, I was completely unfamiliar with Quebec until I fell down the RVG Editions rabbit hole around 2020. And boy-oh-boy am I happy to have finally heard his stuff. I simply love his tone. Had he lived, he would have no doubt given other soul-jazz saxophone players such as Stanley Turrentine and Lou Donaldson a run for their money throughout the decade.

Quebec - tenor saxophone
Freddie Roach - organ
Milt Hinton - bass
Al Harewood - drums

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "The jazzophiles will want this one."
• DownBeat (★★★★): "the playing is as relaxed and spontaneous, yet cohesive, as if these were four steady companions."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The album is brief (35:37), but like Quebec's playing, it is all very economical - no wasted space here. Of the four standards and two Quebec originals, the highlight is the beautiful title track, a wonderful Rodgers & Hammerstein ballad originally from the 1945 film, State Fair.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Easy Living (1987)
Blue & Sentimental (1963)
Heavy Soul (1962)

Grant Green - Idle Moments (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes two bonus tracks.

Simply put, this is the album that made me a full-fledged fan of Grant Green. It is widely regarded as one of Green’s finest recordings and features an exceptional lineup. The album - particularly the 15-minute title track - is striking for its expressive restraint and the ease with which band members take their cues from one another.

Green - guitar
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Bobby Hutcherson - vibes
Duke Pearson - piano
Bob Cranshaw - bass
Al Harewood - drums

Original liner notes written by Duke Pearson; 2004 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: Recording of Special Merit
• Billboard: ★★★★
• DownBeat (★★★★): "Not only are all the performances of high order, but the entire undertaking also has a cohesion, a unity of approach that is quite a delight."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Listed at #12 on uDiscover's list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums, calling the album "arguably the St. Louis fretboard maestro’s magnum opus."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: As mentioned above, the star here is the title track which might be the most laid back piece Blue Note ever released. The whole dang album gets it done in only 4 tracks and is nothing short of fantastic.

Bonus tracks: Alternate versions of Jean De Fleur and Django.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Not long after I fell down the Blue Note rabbit hole, I purchased this CD along with Midnight Blue and listened to nothing else during the evening hours for what seems like the whole of August 2021.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Talkin' About (1965)
Feelin' The Spirit (1963)
Green Street (1961)
Sunday Mornin'/Grantstand/Grant's First Stand/Green Blues

Joe Henderson - In 'N Out (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2004 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes a bonus track.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not Henderson's biggest fan - I find him to be an overly busy soloist but, then again, I'm sure I'm just not hearing something I probably should. So why even bother to pick up this album? The presence of relatively overlooked Texas trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who was once called an “eternally underrated bebop trumpet icon” by critic Will Friedwald.

Slowly breaking away from Horace Silver's group, Henderson wisely put together a great band (see below). With players like that, the music was never going to be unoriginal. The hard bop here is energetic sometimes cool, quirky sometimes hip. A good album that somehow becomes even better when I think of it as a Dorham's instead of Henderson's. Bias can be a cruel mistress.

Plus another essential Blue Note album cover from the mind of Reid Miles.

Henderson - tenor saxophone
Kenny Dorham - trumpet
McCoy Tyner - piano
Richard Davis - bass
Elvin Jones - drums

Original liner notes written by Don Heckman and reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★): "The major moments on this album are contributed by trumpeter Dorham"
• Billboard: ★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Tyner and Dorham shine on their solo work throughout. Compositionally, my favorite cuts are Punjab and Short Story. The bonus track is simply an alternate take of the the title track.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Mode For Joe (1966)

Grant Green - Feelin' The Spirit (1963)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2005 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes a bonus track.

In which one of my favorite jazz guitarists leads a group of great musicians through a set of traditional spirituals and gospel tracks. It sounds like the band is having a great time revisiting songs they grew up learning. Herbie Hancock, in particular, sounds like he'd been listening to a lot of Horace Silver and tried to incorporate some of Silver's sound and grooves into these arrangements. And Green brings beauty to everything he plays, as usual. Perfect for any Sunday morning.

Green - guitar
Herbie Hancock - piano
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums
Garvin Masseaux - tambourine

Original 1963 liner notes written by Joe Goldberg, noted jazz author, and 2004 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★): "The music poses no challenges to the musicians and, as a result, holds no surprises for the listener."
• HiFi/Stereo Review: "too casual"
• Billboard: "could prove to be one of Grant Green's best sellers to date."
• CashBox: "Feelingful"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Only five tracks on the original album, my top picks are Just A Closer Walk With Thee and Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho. The bonus track, Deep River, certainly fits the theme of the album - maybe at almost nine minutes in length there simply wasn't room for it?

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Sunday Mornin'/Grantstand/Grant's First Stand/Green Blues (2012)
Talkin' About (1965)
Green Street (1961)

Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye (1966)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2000 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

Wayne Shorter was an intellectual, philosophical, spiritual man who continually asked big questions. His compositions and playing certainly reflect that transcendent approach to life. Blue Note Records describes this album thusly:

The great saxophonist & composer's goal for his daring 1965 album was to use "a wider range of colors and textures" while continuing his explorations of "life and the universe and God."

To that end, Shorter expanded his ensemble to an septet/octet. The music is energetic and challenging. It practically begged to be created in order to push post-bop jazz to a more expansive, more improvisational next level - Shorter's bandmate with Miles Davis, drummer Tony Williams, sometimes referred to it as "anti-music" or playing the opposite of what one expects. While I can appreciate the need and desire to move ahead as a musician, that doesn't mean that I necessarily enjoy listening to this album very often. I'll stick mainly with Speak No Evil or Native Dancer when I grab a Shorter album. I want to mention that Shorter was prolific around the time of this album's release as he moved forward in his work, not only as a band leader but also appearing frequently on other artists' releases and, most noteworthy, as the principal composer in the "second great quintet" of Miles Davis.

So I'm not wild about the music, but in preparing this post, I was led to a enjoyable three-part documentary series about Shorter, Zero Gravity (2023). Not perfect, but recommended nonetheless. The All Seeing Eye isn't mentioned, but the series helped put this album in context with not only Shorter's creative life, but also his personal life, '60s jazz culture, and the civil rights movement of the time.

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff and 2000 liner notes by Bob Blumenthal. This was Shorter's ninth album as a leader, the sixth on the Blue Note label.

Shorter - tenor saxophone
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet, flugelhorn
Alan Shorter - flugelhorn (track 5)
Grachan Moncur III - trombone
James Spaulding - alto saxophone
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Joe Chambers - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Record World: "Wayne has produced six tunes that depict his fine writing ability and the growing maturity of his leadership."
• DownBeat (no rating): "the music is good, and if it is to your taste, you will not be disappointed."
• Billboard: ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The free jazz album is a programmatic five-piece suite. Of these five tracks, my favorite is the ballad Face Of The Deep, featuring a beautiful solo from Hancock. The final track, Mephistopheles, was written by Shorter's older brother Alan, who also plays flugelhorn on the track.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but speaking of Shorter and Miles Davis, this is one of my all-time favorite social media posts:

Previously revisited for the blog:
Speak No Evil (1966)

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

A stone cold classic with a couple of songs that have since become standards. Hancock, who wrote all the compositions, was only 24 years old when the thing was recorded and it was his fifth album as a leader. Incredible. Over the past 60 years, it's earned many accolades (see below) and deservedly so. If you need an entry point into mid-'60s post-bop jazz, this is just the album you're looking for. Highly recommended.

Hancock - piano
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
George Coleman - tenor saxophone
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums

Much like the earlier Empyrean Isles album, Maiden Voyage was a concept album about the open seas. Also like Empyrean Isles, the album's liner notes were written in prose style by Nora Kelly. It is suspected that the name Nora Kelly was used as a pseudonym but I can't find anything definitive on the matter. In any case, you're better off with the 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★★): "This music communicates something good to me."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ♛★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In 2017, Pitchfork ranked this album at #82 on their list of The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s while the uDiscover Music website ranked Maiden Voyage at #7 on its list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums. And in 1987, this album was selected by Blue Note (Europe) as one of the 25 Best Albums on the label.

In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Finally, the album is listed in the The New York Times Essential Jazz Library: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (2002): "Maiden Voyage is a chill-out record and a chilly one; it's got early sixties ennui all over it."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, ranked:

1. Maiden Voyage
2. Dolphin Dance
3. Little One
4. The Eye Of The Hurricane
5. Survival Of The Fittest

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Best of The Blue Note Years (1988)	Head Hunters (1973)
Round Midnight Soundtrack (1986)	Speak Like A Child (1968)
Lite Me Up (1982)	Empyrean Isles (1964)
Sunlight/Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1978/1979)

Thad Jones - The Magnificent Thad Jones (1956)

Note: the CD I listened to was a EU import of the 2007 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes 2 bonus tracks.

This was the first Blue Note release for Jones as a leader. While he later became more widely known for co-leading the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, The Magnificent Thad Jones remains a high point of his small-group work. According to the Blue Note website, the album "is widely regarded as the greatest small group recording of the trumpeter and composer’s career." The solos throughout make it seem the band was having a great time making the recording. The more I listen to this hard bop CD, the more I enjoy it.

Mono recording at the Van Gelder Studio on July 9 & 14, 1956. Original album liner notes by Leonard Feather and 2007 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Jones - trumpet
Billy Mitchell - tenor sax
Barry Harris - piano
Percy Heath - bass
Max Roach - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "This is the greatest Jones album yet."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• DownBeat Jazz Bestsellers: #20

Tracks:

1. April In Paris: 1932 standard from the Broadway musical, Walk A Little Faster.
2. Billie-Doo: a Jones original
3. If I Love Again: 1933 song from the Broadway musical, Hold Your Horses.
4. If Someone Had Told Me: song from the 1952 movie musical, About Face.
5. Thedia: a Jones original

Bonus tracks:

6. I've Got A Crush On You: Gershwin standard from the 1928 Broadway musical, Treasure Girl.
7. Something To Remember You By: from the 1930 Broadway musical revue, Three's A Crowd.

While the original album is fantastic, I find myself preferring the two beautiful bonus tracks. The final cut, Something To Remember You By, is quite different than anything on the album as it features Jones with a muted trumpet accompanied only by Kenny Burrell on guitar. Sublime.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but when I made a weak attempt at being a magician as a prepubescent boy, I gave myself the nickname "Mark the Magnificent," so Thad and I have that commonality.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Free For All (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2004 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

In which Blakey plays with his typical abandon and everybody in this all-star cast rises to meet his energy. This particular edition of the Jazz Messengers had been together since 1961 and the familiarity among musicians is obvious.

Original album liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Curtis Fuller - trombone
Wayne Shorter - tenor sax
Cedar Walton - piano
Reggie Workman - bass
Art Blakey - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "captures one of the best bands Art Blakey has ever had.
• Billboard: "The Messengers wail through four originals with an abandon typical of Blakey's drive-drumming and leadership." [ed. note: three originals and a cover]
• Downbeat (★★★★★): "one of the best ever by a Blakey group"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

1. Free For All, written by Shorter
   This thing swings hard. When it ends after 11 minutes, I'm exhausted just listening. Living up to the title, the composer takes an extended, frantic solo before Fuller and Hubbard get their turn. Blakey closes it out.
2. Hammer Head, written by Shorter
   Things slow down slightly for this slightly more restrained post-bop tune. Again, Shorter takes the lead, followed by solos from Hubbard, Fuller, and Walton
3. The Core, written by Hubbard
   Dedicated to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), this fast-paced track progresses through a number of grooves, all dictated by Blakey's playing. Solos: Shorter, Hubbard, Fuller, and Walton.
4. Pensativa, written by Clare Fischer
   This beautiful bossa nova would eventually become a standard and I'm certain this wonderfully performed version helped get it there. My favorite cut on the album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None