Der in Philadelphia geborene Trompeter und hervorragende Bebop-Stilist Lee Morgan sammelte seine ersten Erfahrungen bei Dizzy Gillespie und Art Blakey, bevor er sich in den frühen 60ern als Leader mit eigenen Aufnahmen bei Blue Note hervortat. Obwohl musikalisch Gillespie und Clifford Brown verpflichtet, entwickelte er doch bald seine persönliche Stimme, die Halb-Ventil-Effekte ebenso beinhaltete wie Latin-Einflüsse und volltönende fließende Melodien.

Während viele von Morgans späteren Blue Note Sessions zusammen mit dem Saxophonisten Hank Mobley entstanden, stellt The Sidewinder den noch jungen Tenoristen Joe Henderson an der Seite des Detroiter Pianisten Barry Harris, des Bassisten Bob Cranshaw und des Schlagzeugers Billy Higgins in den Vordergrund. Neben dem Titelstück, einem unkonventionellen 24-taktigen Blues, ist "Totem Pole" der kompositorische Mittelpunkt, ein Latin-Moll-Groove mit einen herausragenden Solo von Joe Henderson. Das ist die Art entspannter, durch geistreiche Darbietungen belebter Studiotermine, die das Rückgrat des Blue Note-Katalogs ausmachen.

(Fred Goodman, Amazon.de)

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In the age of the long-haired rock groups, a jazz hit single was a rarity. In early 1965, however, Lee Morgan’s ‘The Sidewinder’, a catchy soul jazz tune riding a jaunty, danceable groove, broke into the US Hot 100, peaking at No.81. The parent album, released the previous year, when Morgan was 25, did even better, reaching No.25 on the US albums chart and becoming the biggest-selling LP in Blue Note’s history. Though dominated by its highly infectious title song, The Sidewinder is not a one-track wonder. Morgan, together with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Billy Higgins, serves up some serious hard bop blowing. Notable for its absence of ballads, The Sidewinder offers a selection of Morgan-penned uptempo numbers, including the super-lively ‘Hocus Pocus’ and slightly mellower ‘Totem Pole’, which are characterised by strong solos and taut group interplay.

(www.udiscovermusic.com)

Crescent was Coltrane’s ninth album for Impulse!, the jazz division of ABC/Paramount that he quit Atlantic for, in 1961. Featuring his so-called classic quartet (Tyner, Garrison, Jones), it contained all original compositions and proved to be a very spiritual LP epitomised by the haunting ‘Wise One’, which opens with lush, rhapsodic chords from Tyner, who sets the mellow tone for Coltrane’s tenor sax, which enunciates a beautiful melody. The second side of the album was also remarkable for containing two tunes (‘Lonnie’s Lament’ and ‘The Drum Thing’) on which Coltrane doesn’t take a solo. Stylistically, it’s a perfect starter to prepare the listener for the following year’s A Love Supreme.

(www.udiscovermusic.com)

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One of only two studio albums cut by the John Coltrane Quartet during 1964, Crescent is most notable for including five Coltrane compositions including the title cut, "Lonnie's Lament" and the swinging "Bessie's Blues." The music is excellent although not as fiery as the Quartet's live performances of the period.

(by Scott Yanow, All Music Guide)

Considered to be his finest moment, Bull's second record goes beyond his first, wearing an electric halo while he continues to explore the boundaries of the guitar. "Blend 2", his answer to his first record's opus "Blend", is a must have for all of those who love John Fahey and Six Organs Of Admittance. A ghostly, warm record as a whole: Bull is on top of his game and once again reinventing the way the ear hears the hand as it plays the guitar. Original artwork.

Henske sings with a full-throated, bluesy style reminiscent of Mama Cass on her best album, which was one of the first contemporary folk records to use a rhythm section (including Earl Palmer on drums). Highlighted by the title track, a moody, soaring ballad that was covered by Jefferson Airplane.

(by Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide)

One of multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef's most enduring recordings, Eastern Sounds was one of the last recordings made by the band that Lateef shared with pianist Barry Harris after the band moved to New York from Detroit, where the jazz scene was already dying. Lateef had long been interested in Eastern music, long before John Coltrane had ever shown any public interest anyway, so this Moodsville session (which meant it was supposed to be a laid-back ballad-like record), recorded in 1961, was drenched in Lateef's current explorations of Eastern mode and interval, as well as tonal and polytonal improvisation. That he could do so within a context that was accessible, and even "pretty," is an accomplishment that stands today. The quartet was rounded out by the inimitable Lex Humphries on drums � whose brushwork was among the most deft and inventive of any player in the music with the possible exception of Connie Kay from the Modern Jazz Quartet � and bass and rabat player Ernie Farrow. The set kicks off with "The Plum Blossom," a sweet oboe and flute piece that comes from an Eastern scale and works in repetitive rhythms and a single D minor mode to move through a blues progression and into something a bit more exotic, which sets up the oboe-driven "Blues for the Orient." Never has Barry Harris' playing stood up with more restraint to such striking effect than it does here. He moves the piece along with striking ostinatos and arpeggios that hold the center of the tune rather than stretch it. Lateef moans softly on the oboe as the rhythm section doubles, then triples, then half times the beat until it all feels like a drone. There are two cinematic themes here � he cut themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe, which are strikingly, hauntingly beautiful � revealing just how important accessibility was to Lateef. And not in the sense of selling out, but more in terms of bringing people to this music he was not only playing, but discovering as well. (Listen to Les Baxter and to the early-'60s recordings of Lateef � which ones are more musically enduring?) However, the themes set up the deep blues and wondrous ballad extrapolations Lateef was working on, like "Don't Blame Me" and "Purple Flower," which add such depth and dimension to the Eastern-flavored music that it is hard to imagine them coming from the same band. Awesome.

(by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)

Like Eric Dolphy before him, Jackie McLean sought to create a kind of vanguard "chamber jazz" that still had the blues feel and � occasionally � the groove of hard bop, though with rounded, moodier edges. Destination Out! was the album on which he found it. Still working with Grachan Moncur III and Bobby Hutcherson � his direct spiritual connection to Dolphy � McLean changed his rhythm section by employing drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Larry Ridley. This combination proved a perfect balance of the four elements. The program is four tunes, three of which were written by Moncur. If there was a perfect Blue Note session after John Coltrane's Blue Train, this was it. Opening with a ballad was a novel idea in 1966, but McLean uses Moncur's love and hate to reveal all the tonal possibilities within this group of musicians, and the textural interplay that exists in the heightened sense of form, time breaks, and rhythm changes. As begun on One Step Beyond, the notion of interval is key in this band, and an elemental part of Moncur's composition. The horn lines are spare, haunting, warm, and treated as textural elements by Hutcherson's vibes. On the tune "Esoteric," Hutcherson and Haynes throw complex rhythmic figures into the mix. Moncur's writing is angular, resembling Ornette's early-'60s melodic notions more than Coltrane's modal considerations. Hutcherson's solo amid the complex, knotty melodic frame is just sublime. "Khalil the Prophet" is McLean's only contribution compositionally to the album, but it's a fine one. Using a hard bop lyric and a shape-shifting sense of harmonic interplay between the three front-line players, McLean moves deeply into a blues groove without giving into mere 4/4 time structures. The architecture of his solo is wonderfully obtuse, playing an alternating series of eighths, 12ths, and even 16ths against Hutcherson's wide-open comping and arpeggio runs. The set ends with Moncur's "Riff Raff," a strolling blues that makes full use of counterpoint on the vibes. Moncur sets his solo against McLean's melodic engagement of Hutcherson, forcing both men into opposition positions that get resolved in a sultry, funky, shimmering blues groove. Of all of McLean's Blue Note dates, so many of which are classic jazz recordings, Destination Out! stands as the one that reveals the true soulfulness and complexity of his writing, arranging, and "singing" voice.

(by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)

Da der Titeltrack Steely Dan zu dem Song "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number" inspirierte, wurde Song For My Father bekannt als Jazzaufnahme, die tausend schlechte Pop-Platten nach sich zog. Aber ganz gleich welche Absichten Steely Dan und ihre vielen, vielen verzweifelten Imitatoren hatten, wir sollten die Schuld hieran nicht dem Pianisten Horace Silver in die Schuhe schieben: Dies ist eine der gefühlvollsten und erfreulichsten Sammlungen von Blue Note -- und das heißt schon etwas. Horace Silver war ein Pionier des Hard-Bop-Stils, der Gospel und R&B mit Jazz kombinierte, er war der Autor von vielen hervorragenden Kompositionen, zu denen nicht nur "Song For My Father" gehört, sondern auch "Opus De Funk", "Nica's Dream", "Senor Blues" und "The Preacher". Seine Quintette, die Tenorsaxofon und Trompete präsentieren, brachten solche Talente hervor wie die Trompeter Woody Shaw, Art Farmer und Donald Byrd. Auf Song For My Father kommt der Tenorsaxofonist Joe Henderson hinzu, der eine seiner typischen Melodien, "The Kicker", beisteuert. Neben der anspruchsvollen Arbeit mit dem Quintett bietet dieses Album auch ein schönes Porträt des Pianisten mit seinem Trio bei "Lonely Woman".

(Fred Goodman, Amazon)

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One of Blue Note's greatest mainstream hard bop dates, Song for My Father is Horace Silver's signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies for a unique blend of earthiness and sophistication, and Song for My Father has perhaps the most sophisticated air of all his albums. Part of the reason is the faintly exotic tint that comes from Silver's flowering fascination with rhythms and modes from overseas -- the bossa nova beat of the classic "Song for My Father," for example, or the Eastern-flavored theme of "Calcutta Cutie," or the tropical-sounding rhythms of "Que Pasa?" Subtle touches like these alter Silver's core sound just enough to bring out its hidden class, which is why the album has become such a favorite source of upscale ambience. Song for My Father was actually far less focused in its origins than the typical Silver project; it dates from the period when Silver was disbanding his classic quintet and assembling a new group, and it features performances from both bands (and, on the CD reissue with bonus tracks, three different sessions). Still, it hangs together remarkably well, and Silver's writing is at its tightest and catchiest. The title cut became Silver's best-known composition, partly because it provided the musical basis for jazz-rock group Steely Dan's biggest pop hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." Another hard bop standard is introduced here in the lone non-Silver tune, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson's "The Kicker," covered often for the challenge of its stuttering phrases and intricate rhythms. Yet somehow it comes off as warm and inviting as the rest of the album, which is necessary for all jazz collections -- mainstream hard bop rarely comes as good as Song for My Father.

(by Steve Huey, AMG)

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A Blue Note stalwart for many years – he joined the label in 1952 and stayed until 1979 – Horace Silver was a pianist who helped to establish not only the hard bop aesthetic but also the genre’s classic small-group format with its twin horn line-up. Silver and his quintet recorded many fine LPs for Blue Note, but Song For My Father, released in early 1965, is one of his finest for the label, even though it features two different incarnations of the pianist’s band. The “classic” line-up – featuring saxophonist Junior Cook and trumpeter Blue Mitchell – appears on just one cut, while their replacements (Joe Henderson and Carmel Jones, respectively) are present on four others (the closing track, ‘Lonely Woman’, is a trio recording between Silver, bassist Gene Taylor and drummer Roy Brooks). Henderson, in fact, brings an earthy robustness to the proceedings with his solo on the album’s classic title track (whose intro was “borrowed” by rock group Steely Dan for their 1974 song ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’).

(www.udiscovermusic.com)