CiTR

This album aptly titled by Blue Note Records' owner Alfred Lion was called "Swing, Swang, Swingin'". "That's what the guys did and this was one of the most relaxed sessions I ever supervised". This was alto saxophone master Jackie Mclean's first quartet date for Blue Note, a label that he signed with in 1959 after several unhappy years with Prestige. Jackie was with BLue Note from 1959 to 1968 in a very good relationship with a label that saw him go through many alterations and advances of his style which was in early years heavily influenced by Charlie Parker (what alto saxophonist wasn't?). This date shows Jackie at his first level of maturity with added depth to his unique sound and a smoothing out of his ideas which flow much more easily. Most of all he sounds like no one else.....Jackie McLean had arrived. He picked his sidemen well in two old friends that he grew up with in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem in the persons of drummer Arthur Taylor and pianist Walter Bishop Jr. New to New York but with experience playing with Bill Evans, Tony Scott and Lennie Tristano was bassist Jimmy Garrison. Garrison went onto fame as the bassist with Coltrane's "classic quartet". The set consists of 5 standards all fairly common except Irving Berlin's "Let's Face The Music and Dance". Benny Golson's Jazz classic "Stablemates" gets a good reading and the set winds up with a good blues by Jackie called "116th and Lenox", depicting an important intersection in Harlem. As Mr Lion said they came and they did swing and swang and were swingin'! Happy Birthday this May 17th to Jackie Mclean....he would have been 79. Mr. Mclean passed away on March 31,2006.