This beautiful little 10" record kicks off in style with some great, up-tempo hard bop. I have to say, this is a truly sublime Rollins effort. And the line-up is very, very good with Rollins on the tenor, Kenny Dorham on the trumpet, Elmo Hope, the superb, perhaps underrated pianist, Percy Heath on the double bass and a guy called Abdullah Buhaina which is of course, unmistakably, Art Blakey on the drums.
The cover art for this album is one of the coolest I've seen. With the superb black and white photo of Rollins and the silver text on the front. There's another Prestige 10" (PRLP 190) with a black and white front photograph of Rollins which also is very cool. But for me, this is a tad cooler. I'm still looking for the PRLP 190.
I do love the 10" format, although I have but a handful of them. I've concentrated on 12" records for the most part but I'm aiming to collect a lot more 10" LP's. They feel truly genuine and they came before a lot of the 12" albums, so they are earlier, older, and that makes them highly desirable to me.
This Prestige sounds remarkably nice as these older 10" albums are, from what I've gathered, more difficult to obtain in great shape. Overall, I guess, but especially the Prestige 10" albums. The cover is in superb shape as well. I'm very happy with my copy.
The music on this album was later released on a 12" album called "Moving Out" on PRLP 7058. All the tunes are great and you should check them out if you're unfamiliar with them. One of my favorites is a ballad called "Silk N' Satin", it's beautiful. A highly recommended album.
Spring has at last arrived here in Stockholm. The sun is shining and the trees on my street is getting greener. I've been saving up for a summer vacation with the family for quite a while. It's been difficult to buy albums during this period. But now we have booked it, the flight and hotel. So, perhaps I will be able to put aside some dough now for some nice jazz albums again. I'm extremely motivated to buy some new stuff and let's see if I can track down some nice pieces soon. In the meantime I will post albums from the collection.
I'd like to wish you a great rest of the weekend, take care and happy listening. I have a couple of hours by myself today so I'm seizing the moment. Next, I'm putting on Side 2 of Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and after that Side 1 of "4, 5 and 6" with Jackie McLean on Prestige...
Cheers!