Customer Reviews

Jackie's Bag

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's so nice to see Jackie McLean's "Jackie's Bag" back in print via Blue Note's RVG Series. I had the good fortune to pick up this fine disc in its original offering back in the early 90s. "Jackie's Bag" combines material from two sessions -- three songs from 1/18/59 and six songs from 9/1/60 -- on one disc. The tracks "Appointment In Ghana," "A Ballad For Doll," "Isle Of Java," "Melonae's Dance," and "Medina" are from the 9/1/60 session featuring Jackie, Tina Brooks, Blue Mitchell, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. A sixth track from that date also included here, "Street Singer," is also available on Tina Brooks' "Back To The Tracks," a limited edition Blue Note that is most likely still in print. These six previously mentioned tunes are the highlight of the album -- what a magnificent band! The disc's first three tracks, "Quadrangle," "Blues Inn" and "Fidel," are from the 1/18/59 session featuring Jackie with Sonny Clark, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. While I'm a huge Sonny Clark fan, these three tunes have always left me a little cold -- maybe that is why Alfred Lion stopped the date after only three songs. Despite this, this is an outstanding CD, and with improved remastering and new liner notes, no Blue Note fan should be without it.

I've only been listening to McLean for the past couple of months...until this album, all as a sideman, to Sonny Clark, Miles, Art Blakey, etc. This is my first album of him as a leader...and it's phenomenal. All the compositions (mostly by Jackie, with a few by tenorist Tina Brooks) are top-notch, my personal favorites being "Fidel" (from the 1959 session)and Isle of Java by Brooks.

The cd has two different bands on it, from a 1959 session and a 1960 session. It would be impossible for me to rate one higher, for two reasons. The first band consists of (along with Mclean) Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Clark and Donald Byrd. The second retains Chambers, but substitutes Jones for Art Taylor, Clark for Kenny Drew, and Byrd for Blue Mitchell. I personally like Jones over Taylor, like Clark and Drew equally, and prefer Mitchell to Byrd. The compositions on both dates are excellent...if there is one nod to the 2nd date, it's the inclusion of underrated Tina Brooks, a tenor player from the Hank Mobley school.

In any case, this album is essential for Blue Note lovers, hard-bop enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the razor alto playing of McLean, who is finer on this album than any date I've heard him on. I can't wait to get Let Freedom Ring now. Buy it!

I indiscriminately tossed six unplayed CDs into the changer for a long trip. When this one came up, all it took was one note to recognize the unmistakable sound of Jackie Mclean. If Paul Desmond's sound is, as it's frequently been characterized, like a "dry martini," Jackie's is a glass of rot-gut rye whiskey, hold the ice. Leonard Bernstein once insisted that a jazz player's tone frequently contains a simultaneous hint of joy and pain, using Louis Armstrong's trumpet sound as an example. Had Jackie been present, he would have had no difficulty whatsoever making his point.

Though never a marquee player, Mclean was always a respected, prolifically-recorded front-liner, going from bebop to hard bop to avant garde and back to mainstream without getting bogged down in fusion, new-age, or electronics. As a contemporary of giants like Bird, Stitt, Cannonball, Phil Woods, Desmond, Konitz, and Art Pepper, he pretty much held his own; as a leader or session player he always goes a step further: he dominates like few other instrumental voices in jazz. He's an artist whose medium is not paint and brush but metal and blowtorch, always leaving a permanent mark--due to his primarily modal and minor-key compositions, his lament-like solos and, above all, that acid, sweet-sour tone.

"Jackie's Bag" is fine, representative Mclean, recommended as essential to collectors and as a good introduction to anyone who's new to his playing. For me, the primary interest was the rarely recorded Tina Brooks, who has a small albeit devoted cult-like following. Surprise (not): on a Mclean session, he sounds so much like Jackie, an inexperienced listener could easily mistake him for the leader. At least Brooks' presence in the ensemble, especially on the last three tunes, adds some fuller, more interesting textures to the spare Mclean-Donald Byrd unison lines of the opening numbers. Moreover, a careful listener will hear that Brooks' sound, though in the same high register as Mclean's alto, is lighter and (to my ears) more welcome for the distance than the trenchant tones of Mclean. More importantly, his melodic lines are more varied, interesting, and freshly allusive (no obvious quotations like Mclean's insertion of an entire chorus of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the 6th track) than the leader's. Though far from being conspicuous in this company, he's the best soloist on the date.

Byrd and Mitchell play with the same sober, assured authority as Mclean; Clark and Drew, as usual, acquit themselves well--but they all sound pretty much like musical extensions of the main man on the session. All in all, a very solid, somewhat typical, Van Gelder-engineered Blue Note date but not terribly engaging and certainly not exciting or memorable.

This outstanding record houses two seperate sessions, one being Jackie's first Blue Note session as a leader (which features McLean, Donald Byrd on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums), and the other being an amazing sextet session (featuring McLean, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, the incredibly underrated Tina Brooks on tenor, Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. Paul Chambers and McLean are the only musicians featured in both bands. The set is made up entirely of originals by McLean and Tina Brooks. Of the three numbers that are played by the first ensemble, I have to say "Fidel" is my personal favorite, providing one of the most memorable lines I have ever heard. Of all the numbers featuring the sextet, I have to say that "Isle of Java" and "Street Singer" are my favorite ("Street Singer" is one of three tunes that didn't appear on the original LP, the other two being "Melonae's Dance" and "Medina".). Overall, this set fines McLean at some of his finest moments and is definitely one of the greatest recordings he ever produced. Rating: 4.75

Jackie McLean, left to his own devices, gets too avant garde for me, to the extent of emotional sterility. But put him with someone with a tremendous lyrical gift, such as Kenny Dorham or Lee Morgan, and the sparks fly! On this album he teams up with Tina Brooks for one of the most intense sessions of the hard bop era. (The first 3 tracks are from another session - although some of my favorite musicians are featured, those 3 tracks give me no pleasure at all and I will ignore them.) Of the McLean-Brooks tracks, McLean wrote 3 and Brooks wrote 3 - as far as I'm concerned, they were essentially co-leaders, and Brooks had an opportunity to express himself at the very pinnacle of his remarkable talent. "Street Singer," the best song on Brooks' Back to the Tracks album, and one of my favorite songs ever, is a more or less typical track on this amazing session. A key element of the session's success is the 3-horn front line - the saxophones of McLean and Brooks are joined by Blue Mitchell on trumpet, and the richness of the harmonies is out of this world. If you have any interest in McLean or Brooks or hard bop or jazz in general, this album is a must-have!

With this one CD comprised of songs from two separate sessions and two different iterations of McLean's band, this is really like getting two CD's for the price of one. Although the quintet only plays on three songs, two of them, Quadrangle and Fidel, are hot, hot, hot. Then the sextet picks it up where the quintet leaves off, smokin' on Appointment in Ghana, getting loose on Isle of Java (which I'm surprised they didn't call Isle of Jive-ah), and the indomitable Street Singer. Overall, the recordings are crisp and clean and feature the superb handling of Rudy Van Gelder and the high quality of Blue Note. Liner notes include the originals and updated ones and both are generous. None of the tracks can be passed over or squeezed out of a play list - Jackie makes everything go in equal measure, so the effect is some very enjoyable, up beat, bop-til-you-drop jazz. It's hard to say 'no' when Jackie invites you to have a look in his bag.