This is a nice album. Four tunes, no hassle, just straight up hard bop to enjoy on a rainy midsummer's eve like this. This album features both John Coltrane and Hank Mobley on tenor saxes. How cool is that? Very cool. Two of my favorite tenor players on one album. And the other cats on this are a formidable bunch; Elmo Hope on piano, Donald Byrd on trumpet, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. I must say, I really dig the piano playing of Elmo Hope. I haven't really started to explore his other stuff in depth, but I know there's some really nice stuff to check out. For example BLP 5044, a nice 10". I'm quite keen on purchasing some more Blue Note 10" records.
But back to Informal Jazz. The tunes are great, I dig them all a lot. The favorites perhaps being the ballad "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and the up-tempo "Weeja". This LP is quite rare. I bought it quite a long time ago, when the covers where less important to me. The cover is a bit worn but that's ok. The LP plays beautifully. I'm happy with my copy. A really nice album to have in the collection. It's always nice to be reminded when I flip through the collection that I have this and when I see it I always get tempted to put it on the turntable. I guess, when I start to concentrate on collecting all the nice stuff Coltrane recorded, I'll be happy to already have one of the rarer ones he's on.
I would recommend this one to all of you rare jazz vinyl collectors out there. A 1st pressing won't come cheap, but it's probably in the low medium range on the value chart of rare vintage jazz vinyl.
I'm heading off to Mexico next week for a summer vacation which will also include Florida. At last, some relaxation. Looking forward to that. The weather at the start of the summer here in Sweden hasn't been the best, but Mexico will provide some much needed warmth and sunshine. I will post stuff during that time as well. After the vacation some new arrivals will be coming in. Some very, very nice stuff which I will put up on the site as soon as possible.
Have a nice weekend and stay tuned for more rare vintage jazz vinyl.