Jackie McLean [Nature Boy]
First off, i must mention the booklet front cover, it's a stunning shot of McLean [though sadly there's no mention of a photographer anywhere], it's a 'diagonal' hip low shot, placing the cropped head in one far corner, and the length of the saxophone goes diagonal almost down to the diametric opposite corner, it's amazing how much is kept in focus, must be a fairly wide angle lens, but it also shows nice fingerwork on the keys, notice also Jackie McLean's name etched on the inner bell of his horn, also the yellow / orange / white lettering is superb, nicely differentiating the leader from the title, and the band members, i saw this cover, and just had to get the album.
Jackie McLean was born in 1931 in America, and died in 2006, he recorded this album in 1999, and i listened to this album last year when my Blog was just getting started [9th January 2010].
Well i enjoyed very much listening to this, McLean is 68 on this album, it's not really Hard Bop, it's quite lyrical and easily paced, you don't get the histronics of say Joshua Redman or Wynton Marsalis, but there's a mature wisdom and thoughtfulness here, it took me a while to get into it, it slowly works its magic on you, on this listen i liked tracks 1-2, 4 & 7-8, with track 2 'Nature Boy' as the highlight, it starts off as a duet with Jackie McLean and pianist Cedar Walton, a nice slow two minute introduction [0:00-1:45], but it's when the rhythm section of David Williams [Bass] and Billy Higgins [Drums] comes in that it really takes off, they create such a masterful vibe [1:43+], especially the Drummer, his very clever accentuated drumwork is a joy to listen to, and McLean solos over this for a couple of minutes [1:49-3:49], and then Cedar Walton comes in with an excellent solo [3:50-5:38], reminds me of Eric Reed, he has lots to say, and lots of variety in presenting it all, after this the bassist David Williams gets a solo [5:38-6:57], usually i'm not a great lover of bass solos, as they have a tendency to bring the music to a standstill, but this is actually an excellent solo, and very well recorded, you can hear all of his ideas, and the drummer creates a tap tap, click click background beat for Williams to solo over, a return of Jackie McLean, and then it's having fun, and a slow fade by all four players down to silence, excellently executed.
