A special album for several reasons. It’s Lacy’s first album as a leader. It’s a quartet and the soprano is the only horn. Can’t think of any other album in my collection when that’s the case. A special one for me personally as well, as it’s an album from the 50’s, and I haven’t bought one from that decade in quite a while. I used to buy 50’s jazz albums all the time, but then I got into the post-bop and avant-garde stuff and been focusing on that for several years now. I feel like focusing a bit on the 50’s and early 60’s again. And this title is a great start.
A lovely session recorded at Rudy’s in Hackensack on November 1st 1957 and released in 1958. Lacy is killing it with this material, which is quite different of course to what he would play later on. One thing that was typical with Lacy is that he always played some Monk compositions. He played with the iconic pianist for a brief period and after that the music of Monk appeared frequently on Lacy’s albums and during his live performances. On this album he chose ”Work” which is a great tune with a quirky theme. Other cuts are the standard ”Alone Together”, which is a definite highlight for me, Cole Porter’s ”Easy to Love”, the calypso ”Little Girl, Your Daddy Is Calling You”, ”Day dream” by Ellington/Strayhorn and ”Rockin’ In Rhythm” by Ellington.
Not a very common LP. Flies a bit under the radar perhaps. But you should check it out if you’re unfamiliar. Original pressings are scarce but it’s worth the search for sure.
