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…

This 1965 session pairs Jackie McLean with Lee Morgan in the front line and features a rhythm section of pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Billy Higgins. Right — a powerhouse band. Originally recorded in 1965, it wasn’t released on LP until 1979, and then on CD…

Like Eric Dolphy before him, Jackie McLean sought to create a kind of vanguard “chamber jazz” that still had the blues feel and — occasionally — the groove of hard bop, though with rounded, moodier edges. Destination Out! was the album on which he found it. Still working with…

This recording, whose music has been reissued as part of a Mosaic Jackie McLean box set, has several selections that are quite fascinating. McLean (along with trumpeter Charles Tolliver, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Billy Higgins) plays free hard bop on “Action” (which does not have…

With the exception of a beautiful ballad version of Larry Willis’s “Poor Eric,” the music on this CD (which is also available in Mosaic’s four-CD Jackie McLean box set) is hard-charging, intense and fairly free. Altoist McLean was at the peak of his powers during this period and, inspired…

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…

Jackie’s Bag is split between two different recording sessions: the first, from January 1959, was the first session Jackie McLean ever led for Blue Note, and the second was a sextet date from September 1960 that featured tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks as a co-leader in all but name. According…

Jackie McLean’s Jacknife sessions have had a peculiar and somewhat disjointed history in his discography. Initially issued in 1975 on a vinyl two-fer as part of the Blue Note reissue series, it included separate previously unreleased sessions from 1965 and 1966, the former with trumpeters Lee Morgan and Charles…

One of McLean’s more underrated albums from a plethora of Blue Note releases, 1960’s Capuchin Swing finds the bebop alto saxophonist in fine form on a mix of covers and originals. While McLean’s future fascination with Ornette Coleman’s free-form innovations can be sensed in some solos here, the majority…

This 1980 recording released for the first time — “Formidable” from a 1959 session and five numbers from a 1963 McLean set. While “Formidable” has a strong quintet (with altoist Jackie McLean, trumpeter Donald Byrd, pianist Walter Davis, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Pete La Roca), the 1963 session…