This excellent album of vintage bop opens with seven tracks recorded in Chicago during February 1948, using members of the band that
Howard McGhee was leading at Chicago's Argyle Lounge at the time.
Milt Jackson and
Percy Heath are heard on the first three tunes, along with an unnamed baritone saxophonist. For the second session
McGhee used an entirely different band, with a tenor player who is believed to have been
Kenny Mann and a rhythm section of
Hank Jones,
Ray Brown, and the great
J.C. Heard.
Billy Eckstine, who by this time had dissolved his own band and was busily pulling in an unprecedented amount of cash by making vocal pop records for MGM, blows his valve trombone alongside
McGhee on this date. No vocalist is mentioned in the enclosed discography, even though someone scats up a storm from time to time. Whoever it was, he didn't sound like
Eckstine.
McGhee's next recording dates as a leader took place in Paris, where 13 sides were cut for the Vogue and Blue Star labels on May 15th and 18th. This band really cooked, with
Jimmy Heath and
Jesse Powell joining the trumpeter's front line and a rhythm section of
Vernon Biddle,
Percy Heath, and
Specs Wright. The upbeat numbers are exceptionally well-crafted studies in modern jazz. "Denise" and "Etoile," slow and reflective, sound like the poetically charged "Portrait" studies that young
Charles Mingus was already beginning to formulate on his own. The closing selections, recorded for Blue Note in New York on October 11, 1948, pair
McGhee with
Fats Navarro alongside alto saxophonist
Ernie Henry and
Milt Jackson playing both vibes and piano.
Curly Russell and
Kenny Clarke round off this amazing six-piece
Howard McGhee Boptet.