This 2000 reissue has a somewhat bizarre history. Though originally recorded and released by Elektra -- which sounds like a brazen typo but it's true -- in mono and stereo, label owner
Jac Holzman quickly gave up on it, whereupon Savoy bought the master and put it out themselves in 1960 in mono only. One track, the all percussion, semi-Afro-Cuban tour de force "Study in Rhythm," appeared only on the Elektra stereo issue, and "Reflections of Buhaina" only surfaced on the mono Elektra and Savoy LPs; both thankfully appear here. Also, since this was the only
Blakey item in the Savoy archives and the archivists needed some filler, they tacked on 27 minutes of music (why not more?) from the Bill Hardman Quartet, the trumpeter's sole album as a leader from this period, and
Blakey doesn't even play on it. For all of that, the
Blakey tracks form a superb set of hard bop straight from the period to you, with
Jackie MacLean in vintage form on alto sax, consistently great, swinging trumpet by the underrated
Bill Hardman, and conventional support from
Sam Dockery on piano and
Spanky DeBrest on bass. Listen to how the shuffling
Blakey and
Hardman feed off each other when
Hardman solos on "Casino," "The Biddie Griddies," and the title track; they had some powerful telepathy going in those days. As for the
Hardman-led selections, with
Sonny Red (alto),
Ronnie Mathews (piano),
Doug Watkins and
Bob Cunningham (bass) and
Jimmy Cobb (drums), there is more reliable hard bop to be heard, though
Hardman doesn't sound quite as inspired as he does on the
Blakey tracks. ~ Richard S. Ginell