Trumpeter
Howard McGhee had a bit of a renaissance in the early '60s before slipping back into obscurity. This formerly rare session (reissued on CD by Black Lion) has eight selections (plus four previously unreleased alternate takes) by a quintet featuring
McGhee, tenor saxophonist
George Coleman, pianist
Junior Mance, bassist
George Tucker and drummer
Jimmy Cobb. The trumpeter wrote arrangements for all of the songs (four of which were his originals) and the writing makes the band sound like a regularly working group rather than having the feel of a loose jam session.
McGhee's style, although a bit calmer than he often sounded in his heyday in the 1940s, was still quite boppish and his distinctive crisp sound was unchanged. Fine swinging music.