Although
Leonard Feather, in the original liner notes that are reproduced for this reissue, says that it is an oversimplification to call the music on this 1958 session "hard bop," the performances are actually pretty definitive of the idiom. Baritonist
Pepper Adams, freshly arrived in New York from Detroit, co-leads a quintet with the up-and-coming trombonist
Jimmy Knepper that also includes such young notables as pianist
Wynton Kelly, bassist
Doug Watkins and drummer
Elvin Jones. They perform an obscure
Jon Hendricks song, a lyrical version of "All Too Soon," the straight-ahead bebop blues "Beaubien," a couple obscure originals,
Duke Ellington's "I Didn't Know About You" (which has
Kelly switching to a spooky-sounding organ) and
Knepper's "Primrose Path." The blend between baritone and trombone is quite effective, the musicians all take consistently excellent solos and the music is state-of-the-art 1958 modern mainstream jazz; in other words, hard bop.