Before he retired from music in 1960, pianist
George Wallington led a series of excellent bop-based quintet albums. For this particular CD (a reissue of a date originally put out by New Jazz),
Wallington heads a group featuring altoist
Phil Woods, trumpeter
Donald Byrd, bassist
Teddy Kotick and drummer
Nick Stabulas. With the exception of the standard "Indian Summer," the repertoire is pretty obscure (with now-forgotten originals by
Byrd,
Woods and
Mose Allison in addition to "Graduation Day") but of a consistent high quality. The emphasis is on hard-swinging and this set should greatly please straightahead jazz fans. ~ Scott Yanow