Jackie McLean 4, 5 and 6 (Mono)

180g Vinyl LP!
Mastered by Kevin Gray & Cut from the Original Mono 100% Analog Master Tapes!
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings!
Half quartets, two quintets and one sextet: In 1956, Prestige released "4, 5 and 6", an album that was to establish the up-and-coming alto saxophonist Jackie McLean in the jazz scene. He was accompanied by trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, Mal Waldron on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. McLean's quartet versions of "Sentimental Journey", "Why Was I Born?" and "When I Fall in Love" are bluesy, with hearty hard bop touches, but also thoughtful and expectant. In all three, the saxophonist demonstrates his own style by adding his own texture to the composition.
"4, 5 and 6" alone was not a groundbreaking album, but it foreshadows McLean's future as an innovative musician in an overly purist mainstream jazz world.
This LP for Prestige helped establish alto sax giant McLean on the jazz scene. He was joined by trumpeter Donald Byrd (who shines with the altoist on Charlie Parker's "Confirmation") and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley (also bopping hard on the tune), in a date solidified by McLean's rhythm section: Mal Waldron on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. McLean also plays ballads, including Waldron's sublime tune "Abstraction." Writing in the original notes, Ira Gitler said, "Jackie McLean is musically coming of age. His playing, out of Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, has become a personalized, more individual voice in 1956 and he has not lost any of the basic emotion, swinging qualities that help his style live up to the second syllable of his last name so well."
"During his avant-garde period in the early 60s McLean dismissed his earlier recordings, but whatever impossible standards he was setting for himself, his playing on them still sounds fresh, creative, and inspired... The only way McLean's bright, biting sound was ever heard to better advantage was live." - Duck Baker, The Absolute Sound, April 2013, 3.5 Music, 5/5 Sonics

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Mono
• Cut from the Analogue Masters by Kevin Gray
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Deluxe High-Gloss Tip-On Album Jacket

Musicians:

• Jackie McLean, alto sax
• Mal Waldron, piano
• Doug Watkins, bass
• Art Taylor, drums
• Donald Byrd, trumpet (3, 4, 6)
• Hank Mobley, tenor sax (4)

Selections:

Side A
1. Sentimental Journey
2. Why Was I Born?
3. When I Fall In Love
Side B
1. Contour
2. Abstraction
3. Confirmation