Other than four titles from 1949, this CD reissue has tenor saxophonist
Harold Land's first sessions as a leader. Teamed up on the West Coast with trumpeter
Rolf Ericson, pianist
Carl Perkins, bassist
Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer
Frank Butler,
Land shows that hard bop was very much alive in Los Angeles in the late '50s. His tone is cooler and softer than it would become later on, but it was already pretty distinctive.
Land performs three of his swinging originals, the original version of
Perkins' "Grooveyard" (which became a minor standard), an obscurity by
Elmo Hope, and the standards "Speak Low" and "You Don't Know What Love Is." The reissue also adds "Promised Land" to the original program. Fine straight-ahead music.