McLean, Gil Coggins, Oscar Pettiford & Kenny Clarke) Blue Note
10-inch LP Modern Jazz Series 5013 (from Classic Records) ****:
Talk about nostalgia for some of us! Would you believe an audiophile
pressing 10-inch mono LP? Well, believe it! Classic Records even
replicated the back cover, which has no liner notes but just lists of
other early Blue Note 10-inchers by Thelonious Monk, James Moody,
Erroll Garner and others. Also to the non-raised-protective-edge of the
disc as later LPs have. There isn’t even a mention in small print of
Classic Records. (The one item that certainly wasn’t part of the
original release is the plastic sleeve around the disc.)
Oh yeah, the music: This is early Miles and much more melodic than the
bulk of his recorded repertory. His tone is richer and more
romantic-sounding than on later recordings. His solos on Yesterdays on
this disc are simply enchanting. In spite of the more conservative
approach there is nothing ordinary or boring about these half dozen
tracks. Joining Miles in the front line are J.J. Johnson’s trombone and
Jackie McLean’s sax. You have to get up more frequently with this disc,
but every vinylphile should have at least one 10-inch (uhh, isn’t there
a double-entendre blues song about that?) Mine is going to be nestled
right next to that terrific mono Count Basie LP with the atom bomb on
the cover that Classic issued a couple years back. Tracks: Dear Old
Stockholm, Chance It, Yesterdays, Donna, Would’n You, How Deep Is the
Ocean.
