This albums contains quite a special brand of jazz. It’s very suggestive and creative. It’s smooth but challenging and full of inspiring passages. Booker Little has composed all the tunes, very impressive. These originals are highly interesting and far from your regular hard bop tunes. What a great trumpeter Booker is. Eric Dolphy is also present, and we know what a fabulous combination those two cats are together. Both are true masters of their craft and they complement each other in a superb way. Just listen to this album, Far Cry and the Five Spot albums to get a sense of what that partnership was all about. I also dig the playing and approach by Max Roach and his tympani. The other cats are Julian Priester on trombone, Art Davis and Ron Carter on double bass and Don Friedman on piano. A very nice group.
I have two copies of this album. Both copies has some flaws but I’m just happy to own this music on original vinyl. Maybe I’ll be able to upgrade to a NM copy someday, but for now these copies will do and they are very enjoyable to listen to. Loud and clear sound with superb detail, just some intermittent pops and clicks. After all, we’re talking 60 year old vintage vinyl…
I‘ll keep my eye out for an even better copy of this title, and also some other Booker Little titles on other labels. I’ve always held the trumpet as my favorite instrument in jazz and Booker Little is in my top 10 list of greatest trumpeters of all time, despite his short career. And in addition to being a master trumpeter this album really displays his wonderful compositional skills as well. A set of very unique tunes for sure. Another instrument that I find very interesting in jazz is the double bass. I find it very expressive, I love the sound and I’m so in awe of all the master bassists and their skills on this big instrument. Just now for example I’ve watched some instructional videos on YouTube featuring Gary Peacock and I’ve watched “An Evening with Eddie Gomez” as well, and I find it fascinating.
Question for my readers: As this is a trumpeter-led session, could you give me your top 5 albums which features a trumpeter as a leader? Think I’ve asked this before, but let’s do it again; favorite instrument in jazz?
I have 3 new albums coming to me on Tuesday next week. Looking forward to that. Some new blood into the collection. I hope you guys have added some great stuff to your collections so far this year as well. Enjoy your weekend, stay safe and stay tuned for more original vintage jazz vinyl… cheers!