Trumpeter Blue Mitchell delivers a solid hard bop date with his 1966 Blue Note release Boss Horn. Rudy Van Gelder edition of Boss Horn features remastered sound by original producer Van Gelder that does significanly improve the overall sound quality over the original release.] ~ Matt Collar
This Blue Mitchell date is a classic, particularly the opening “Fungii Mama,” which is really catchy. The trumpeter’s quintet of the period (which includes tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, the young pianist Chick Corea, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Al Foster) also performs two Jimmy Heath tunes and a song…
Tex Book Tenor was recorded in 1968 as a follow-up to Booker Ervin’s debut date for Blue Note, The In Between, which was released in January of the same year. (Ervin had made two records for Pacific Jazz, which is now owned, like Blue Note, by EMI.) The album…
Booker Ervin headed to Blue Note in 1968 for The In Between, a record that found him continuing in the vein of his later Prestige sessions. Supported by trumpeter Richard Williams, pianist Bobby Few, bassist Cevera Jeffries and drummer Lennie McBrowne, Ervin created an album that pushed the boundaries…
It isn’t too difficult to understand why MFSL considered this album to be a worthy candidate for an Ultradisc reissue — aside from Cannonball Adderley, you have a lineup that includes Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones, and Art Blakey. This is a group that could take on a…
In an all too small discography, Freddie Redd’s Shades of Redd is without a doubt his crowning achievement. Completed after a successful stint composing music for the stage play The Connection, Redd wrote music specifically geared for his two formidable front line saxophonists — emerging alto giant Jackie McLean…
Freddie Redd composed the music for Jack Gelber’s The Connection, a gritty play about musician junkies. Gelber had originally thought that the play would feature real musicians — who would also double as actors in minor roles — improvising on blues and jazz standards in the tradition of Charlie…
Redd’s Blues didn’t make it to LP until 1988 and CD until 2002 and that’s a tip-off. It’s a generic Blue Note disc, journeyman in the sense of not offering any great revelation, no undiscovered “shoulda-been-a-standard” composition, nothing to supplant The Connection as the first Freddie Redd disc to…
Kenny Drew’s seventh recording as a leader is significant for many reasons, not the least of which that it is one of the finest Blue Note hard bop statements in either of their catalogs. Teamed with rising young star, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and the wonderful tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley…
