Swing Swang Swingin [Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Jackie McLean | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 2, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Blue Note Japan
• ASIN: B0000088U5
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,364,992 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. What's New?

2. Let's Face the Music and Dance

3. Stablemates

4. I Remember You

5. I Love You

6. I'll Take Romance

7. 116th and Lenox

Editorial Reviews

Review

Astute listeners know that the very first Blue Note CD issues are sonically superior to the more recent RVG remasters. Well, these XRCD24s absolutely crush them both, displaying high-frequency air, midrange presence, and bottom-end definition and weight missing on earlier CDs and many LPs as well. --Mark Mickelson, TheAudioBeat.com

Blue Note has never sounded this good on CD before - these are the first digital Blue Notes that come close to the sound of vinyl. And the packaging is outstanding. I love the high quality glossy covers, and the insert booklets are the first effort I've seen to fit high quality photography into such a small package. Keep up the good work! --Dennis Davis, Hi-Fi+

Compared to the 45 r.p.m. vinyl, the LPs still have a slight edge in smoothness and liquidity, but thanks to the XRCD process and the care that was taken transferring these albums directly from the original analog masters, these CD's have to be approaching the limit of what the compact disc is capable of resolving. Instrument timbre is stunningly real, and the amount of air and decay present on these recordings will make the uninitiated swear that there is a record playing on a turntable somewhere. I've never heard this music sound this good in any digital format. --Jeff Dorgay, TONEAudio --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Description

Jackie McLean, an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, who recorded with such Jazz greats as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins is joined on this album Swing, Swang, Swingin' with Art Taylor on drums, Walter Bishop Jr. on piano, and Jimmy Garrison on bass and delivers a great session of tunes. Recorded in 1959, this was Jackie's 2nd album with Blue Note. Includes a swinging version of Cole Porter's I Love You and a refreshing & lively take on Irving Berlin's Let's Face the Music and Dance. Contains 7 songs. The definitive versions of Blue Note are on XRCD24 - the optimization of CD mastering and manufacturing. Plays on all standard CD players. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really a relaxed date, December 27, 2001

By 

G. Schramke (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Swing Swang Swingin (Audio CD)

Here we have one of those really relaxed recording sessions with four great guys who just love to play together. Things start off with "What's New", taken here at a surprising medium tempo rather than the usual ballad time. One time, when I heard Jackie McLean in person, he actually played that tune in a similar way, so this CD brings back to me some very beautiful memories. Jackie McLean always keeps his very personal and unique style, whether he is playing more familiar material like on this album,or is taking some "steps beyond". Especially after listening to the more advanced material from his famous albums of the sixties, it's really relaxing to have him play standards like "I Remember You" or "I'd Take Romance", and I particularly like his version on Golson's "Stablemates", which is a very good example of pure McLean on that tune with it's beautiful chord progressions. About the pianist on that date, Walter Bishop, just let me say that he is beautiful. Like on another great McLean-Album, "Capuchin Swing", he gets enough space to really stretch out. He was a Bud Powell disciple without merely copying Bud, very tasteful indeed.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True To Its Name, September 11, 2000

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Swing Swang Swingin (Audio CD)

This Jackie McLean album is a truly swinging affair. There's not a ballad in the bunch. As Alfred Lion says in the liner notes, "They came, swung and they split, so we called the album 'Swing, Swang, Swingin'." Touche Al, say no more! Well, how about two more points of information. First, Jackie's quartet for this recording is Walter Bishop on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. Second, this is a limited edition so don't wait too long to buy it, or "Swing, Swang" will go swinging off.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aptly titled !, May 21, 2010

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Swing Swang Swingin' (MP3 Download)

The coolest thing about Jackie McLean is that you just can't go wrong with him...
He was intrinsically hip... edgy, and unpretentiously artistic and most important, he was a swinger...
the type of sax player who was incapable of blowing anything uninteresting... ever.
The opening number, WHAT'S NEW is a perfect example...
Whereas many other alto players may have needed a tight front line (say a trumpet minimum) to fire them off, Jackie states the melody both accurately and creatively... his solo is fluent, energetic, pays homage to his idol Bird, yet is distinctly McLeanistic and it doesn't end there...
Walter Bishop Jr. always took tasty solos... then McLean comes back with a second solo - - he is able to play with both the harmony and melody at the same time... You never forget its Jackie, and even better never forget its What's New... he is also a master subtle communicator with his band an very in the moment. A good example is that you can tell he steps back slightly from the mic before coming back to the solo (this keeps the rhythm section on his tail so the arrangement has appropriate momentum at the ending) - - It is in stark contrast to Sonny Stitt, also a genius, but one who had a habit of competing with, rather than playing with his bandmates... Both were genius, but I think this is where Jackie had his true edge -- there's a bit more human warmth, though both were equally under-appreciated post-Parker era geniuses. (James Spaulding is another bopper who belongs on the list and was just as great, though sadly infinitely more under-recorded than any of them!)

Let's Face The Music and Dance is great for a second tune... as much fun as McClean has with the space in What's New, his solos are short punchy in that one... here he stretches out even more... has fun, States it but also goes off and Bishop answers him in that fluently on the beat Bud Powell-esque style... Art Talor and Jimmy Garrison in contrast are tight, relaxed, and swinging at the same time (the thing that many years ago made me fall in love with Jazz... the feel of that walking bass actually... walking (though not on Earth).

Regarding the rhythm section, another note: Big John Patton, my mentor on the Hammond once told me that the way you rate a solo is feel the momentum of the tune, and make sure it doesn't drop during any particular solo... This is definitely one rhythm section and two soloists who capture the concept greatly... The album swings just as hard during Bishop's solos (he was great at comping for himself) as the band does behind McClean... The rhythm section really set the record straight on I'll Take Romance... love Jimmy Garrison's bass solo!

At this point I'll pause from analyzing each and every tune on the album because there are quite a few... I will say that I like the distinct warmth that McClean has... He can play very fast and notey at times, but on the other hand, his alto is so WARM on I REMEMBER YOU.... this in fact is one area that he was superior to Parker... Parker was great at playing his own tunes, but not as keen on interpreting the melodies of standards... McClean on the other hand played them *and* used them as vehicles. - - His arrangements of I Love You is particularly great... his tone is distinct, upfront and really digs down into into the melody... I also like the way he was able to restrain himself when using scales in his solos... in areas where its too tempting to go off and play a flurry of notes, he holds back, yet at other times, when a melodic concept arises, he goes with it. - - I also think Ira Gitler makes a brilliant point in the liner notes how closely McLean's lines are tied to the beat... even more-so than Bird's.

All in all this is a much under-appreciated gem of the the "modern" hard bop era swinging standard... It is worth a lifetime of repeated listens, and I'm sure even if I came back to earth as a donut I'd appreciate it too... so long as I was a hip one.