Jackie McLean: 4, 5 and 6

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s 4, 5 and 6, recorded in 1956, was his third album as leader and second for Prestige. The LP at the time helped to establish McLean on the jazz scene. He was joined by trumpeter Donald Byrd (who shines with the altoist on Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation”) and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley (also bopping hard on the tune), in a date solidified by McLean’s rhythm section: Mal Waldron on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. McLean also plays ballads, including Waldron’s sublime tune “Abstraction.” Writing in the original notes, Ira Gitler said, ”Jackie McLean is musically coming of age. His playing, out of Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, has become a personalized, more individual voice in 1956 and he has not lost any of the basic emotion, swinging qualities that help his style live up to the second syllable of his last name so well.”

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