Jackie McLean’s 1962 album Let Freedom Ring reflected the change in the air of the early ‘60s: both the musical freedoms being explored by the emergent avant-garde movement and the social freedoms sought by the ascendent civil rights movement. This four-song set featuring the alto saxophonist with Walter Davis Jr. on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums melds the bluesy language of hard bop with the bristling energy of The New Thing. McLean’s emotive horn wails, shrieks, and soothes as the quartet moves through three striking McLean originals: “Melody For Melonae” (dedicated to his daughter), “Rene” (dedicated to his son), and “Omega” (dedicated to his mother). A plaintive rendition of the Bud Powell ballad “I’ll Keep Loving You” rounds out the date.

Recorded in 1956 for producer Tom Wilson’s short-lived Boston-based label Transition Records, Watkins At Large was the first of only two albums that the great bassist Doug Watkins would make as a leader. The Detroit native had moved to New York and begun to garner recognition for his contributions to the Art Blakey-Horace Silver co-led iteration of the Jazz Messengers as well as Bud Powell’s trio when Wilson decided to give him the opportunity to front his own recording date. Along with a first-rate ensemble featuring trumpeter Donald Byrd, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Duke Jordan, and drummer Art Taylor, Watkins swings through a stellar set of blues, ballads, and more including originals written by Jordan, Burrell, and Thad Jones.

Kenny Dorham added stellar entries to the catalogs of Blue Note, Riverside, and New Jazz throughout the 1950s as he solidified his reputation as a leading trumpeter and composer on the jazz scene. He began 1961 in the studio for Blue Note recording his excellent album Whistle Stop and later that year cut his first date for Pacific Jazz, Inta Somethin’, a spirited live recording that captured Dorham leading a quintet with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, pianist Walter Bishop Jr., bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Art Taylor at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. The band is firing on all cylinders throughout this set of four standards bookended by the Dorham originals “Us” and “San Francisco Beat.” A buoyant version of “It Could Happen To You” is performed quartet as a Dorham showcase, while the trumpeter lays out on “Let’s Face The Music And Dance” and “Lover Man” to give the spotlight to McLean.

The precocious and prodigious drummer and composer Tony Williams had already joined the Miles Davis Quintet and participated in numerous landmark Blue Note recordings including Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles, Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch, Andrew Hill Point Of Departure, Jackie McLean One Step Beyond, and Grachan Moncur III Evolution by the time he recorded his own adventurous debut album Life Time in August 1964, when he was still just 18 years old. Williams had no intention of playing it safe on his maiden voyage as a leader and set forth to document his uncompromising expression on this program of innovative original compositions.

Side 1 presents the expansive two movement suite "2 Pieces of One" with the drummer joined by tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and bassists Gary Peacock and Richard Davis. Side 2 opens with the jaunty "Tomorrow Afternoon" featuring Williams, Rivers, and Peacock. Williams plays a variety of percussion on the freely improvised "Memory" which features Herbie Hancock on piano and Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, and lays out entirely on the ruminative piano-bass duet "Barb's Song to the Wizard" performed by Hancock and Ron Carter which closes the album.

After his six years with the seminal John Coltrane Quartet, the master drummer Elvin Jones signed with Blue Note in 1968 and began building his own career as a bandleader. His first two albums for the label were spare trio outings-Puttin' It Together and The Ultimate-both featuring saxophonist Joe Farrell and bassist Jimmy Garrison. For his next album-1969's unfettered post-bop exploration Poly-Currents-Jones expanded his ensemble with additional woodwinds and percussion while still maintaining spacious realms for the musicians to delve into on modal band member originals including "Agenda," Agappe Love," "Mr. Jones," and "Whew." Jones is joined throughout by a cast that includes Farrell on tenor saxophone, English horn, and flutes, George Coleman on tenor saxophone, Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, Fred Tompkins on flute, Wilbur Little on bass, and Cuban conguero Candido Camero.

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Blue Note Tone Poet Series

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The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley, a.k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

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Extreme attention to detail has been paid to getting these right in every conceivable way, from the jacket graphics and printing quality to superior LP mastering (direct from the master tapes) by Kevin Gray to superb 180g audiophile LP pressings by Record Technology Inc. Every aspect of these Tone Poet releases is done to the highest possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. This is IT.

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This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

Elvin Jones / Poly-Currents Blue Note Tone Poet Series - Elvin Jones

The prodigious trumpeter Freddie Hubbard debuted on Blue Note in 1960 and produced an astounding run of recordings over the first half of the decade that culminated with Blue Spirits, which was the last of his 1960s studio albums for the label. This bluesy and spirited album presented five evocative Hubbard originals, each of which was given a richly textured arrangement for an ensemble that included a dynamic four-horn lineup. Drawn from two different sessions, the first date produced the gratifying opening track "Soul Surge" and the percolating "Cunga Black" with Hubbard joined by James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Kiane Zawadi on euphonium, Harold Mabern on piano, Larry Ridley on bass, Clifford Jarvis on drums, and Big Black on congas. A week later Hubbard returned to Van Gelder Studio with Spaulding, Zawadi, and a slightly different lineup including Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Pete LaRoca on drums. This second session rounded out the album with hard-charging performances of "Outer Forces" and "Jodo," as well as the mesmerizing title track.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

FEATURES:

• 180gram Vinyl LP
• Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Mastered from the Original Analog Tapes
• Deluxe Tip-On Jacket

Freddie Hubbard Blue Spirits (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) 180gram LP

The brilliant arranger, composer, and pianist Gil Evans had already collaborated with Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool and Miles Ahead and made his own debut album Gil Evans & Ten for Prestige when he signed with World Pacific Records in 1958 and made the first of two albums for the label: New Bottle Old Wine with featured soloist Cannonball Adderley. The next year Evans was back in the studio to record the follow-up Great Jazz Standards with two different ensembles featuring the likes of trumpeter Johnny Coles, trombonists Curtis Fuller and Jimmy Cleveland, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Budd Johnson, guitarist Ray Crawford, drummer Elvin Jones, and others. As the title promises, the album presents a program of great jazz standards leading off with Bix Beiderbecke's "Davenport Blues," a showcase for Coles, before launching into a shimmering version of Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser" where Coles, Lacy, Fuller, and Evans all get the spotlight. A stunning presentation of Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf's "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" and a no-nonsense take on Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring" close out the first side. On the flipside, John Lewis' "Django" gets an impressionistic arrangement full of surprises, while a modernistic version of Don Redman's "Chant of the Weed" is a solo vehicle for Johnson's clarinet. The album culminates with a soaring performance of the Evans original "Theme," later known as "La Nevada."

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

FEATURES:

• 180gram Vinyl LP
• Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Mastered from the Original Analog Tapes
• Deluxe Tip-On Jacket

Gil Evans - Great Jazz Standards - Tone Poet LP