Billboard : 09/02/1957
Score of 80

Ability of tenorists Cohn and Sims to keep their improvisations vital and fresh lend musical value to this session. The exemplary rapport displayed by the group is also to be noted. Tho a plethora of Cohn, Sims sets—alone and together—are available, dealer should stock this one.

-----

Cashbox : 08/10/1957

Two shining lights on tenor sax, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, are teamed together for a light, and breezy Victor “Birdland” date that should offer dealers a fine attraction to the jazz coterie. The boys, with top-drawer support from the likes of Milt Hinton, bass; Hank Jones, piano; and Osie Johnson, drums, stick, with the exception of Somebody Loves Me, and East Of The Sun, to originals. Jazz shelf find.

-----

Jazz Today
Jack Maher : October 1957

Double tenors from Victor, Al and Zoot, hook-up in a moving session. The movement is rhythmic in pleasant swinging; the writing, by a whole variety of people including Al, Osie, Ernie Wilkins, Zoot, Manny Albam and Ralph Burns. The latter named did the pun-ish Crimea River, which has the vague, misty quality its name implies. The two-tenor playing is articulate and as was said before, honestly rhythmic.

CODA: Tenors in tandem have swing, articulation and do travel-smoothly.

-----

Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Fred Sherman : 09/22/1957

From A to Z, the Al Cohn-Zoot Sims sextet (RCA Victor LPM-1282), with the tenors making a strong bid to replace the excitement of the fading trombone twinning. Dick Sherman’s trumpet is added on eight of a dozen tunes. Rhythm from Osie Johnson and Milt Hinton with piano duty divided by Hank Jones and Dave McKenna. A lively product.

-----

San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, CA)
Ralph J. Gleason : 09/29/1957

Titled From A to Z, this album brings us the two tenor men who are the rage of the East Coast in a good blowing session backed by rhythm. It’s a fine LP, full of good tenor playing and interesting contrasts between the two men. Recommended.

-----

Toronto Star (Toronto, ON)
Roger Feather : 12/21/1957
Three stars

Zoot’s hard, pushing tenor and Al’s softer, lazy-like tenor have been heard, both separately and together, on innumerable records in the past few years. These are two of the better Lester Young influenced tenormen, and although they have individual traits, at times it is rather hard to tell them apart.

This is a relaxed, but hard-swinging, session with fairly substantial writing. Both Cohn and Sims play well, but they do not seem very enthusiastic. Sherman plays with good intonation and assurance and McKenna, one of the most underrated pianists, is excellent in his short solos. Ten of the 12 tunes are originals.

There is an easy East Of The Sun, a bluesy A New Moan, a wailing More Bread, and an interesting Tenor For Two, Jack. This L.P. has a lot of drive and a lot of swing, but only a little excitement.

-----

Down Beat : 10/03/1957
Ralph J. Gleason : 3.5 stars

This album was made more than a year and a half ago and, although it is contemporary with a Birdland date Zoot and Al played, it antedates their current group by some time.

It is an exceedingly pleasant album, full of good, swinging, easy-flowing moments, bright humorous surprises and sparkling solo bits by Jones and McKenna as well as the brisk Lewis writing that characterizes the Lewis and Cohn Expedition to greater RCA. (It is interesting to note that the best things Jack Lewis did have appeared after his reign.)

Without question, both Al and Zoot are swingers of rare distinction; the Sims flow, easiness of feeling and constant swell of emotion is more attractive to some than the fuller-toned, occasionally more moaning sound of Cohn, but it would be an odd cat who didn’t dig most of this LP. My own ears are particularly attracted to East of the Sun because of the exciting feeling the two tenors generate when they swap fours.

Otherwise it’s a good LP, neatly done with only a blandness of feeling and sound to fault it and lacking in just that additional spark to make it four stars.

-----

Liner Notes by John S. Wilson

The distance between A and Z (at least, between the A and Z under consideration here) is approximately the distance between your index and middle fingers although, in the beginning, it spanned the North American continent. The present cozy cuddlesomeness of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims is not simply a matter of friendship. That enters into it, too, but basically it is a musical mutuality.

Their tenor saxophone styles are very similar: a robust, hard swinging, middle ground style that stems from Lester Young but gives more than a passing nod in the direction of the strength and virility with which Coleman Hawkins endowed the tenor. It is a tossup which of the two is the top man today in this style. It would be both safe and accurate to say that they both are.

Al and Zoot were born within a month of each other (Zoot is the senior by three and a half weeks), but the events happened three thousand miles apart: Al arrived in Brooklyn, New York, Zoot in Inglewood, California. Both started their musical lives on clarinet and by the early 1940s they had switched to tenor and were playing in big bands. They first joined forces when they were part of the Four Brothers saxophone section in Woody Herman’s band. Something of the affinity that the two feel for each other can be deduced from the fact that of the three men Al lists as his favorites on tenor (Zoot, Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker), only Zoot made his reputation as a tenor man; while Zoot, in turn, comes up with the same situation when he picks his two favorites (Cohn, Stitt). Put it down that they are each other’s favorite tenor.

The collaborations gathered here grew out of a date Al and Zoot played together at Birdland at the end of 1955. At that time they used only a rhythm section along with their two challenging horns. This is the set-up they follow on four of these numbers (Somebody Loves Me, From A to Z, East of the Sun and Tenor for Two Please, Jack) on which they have the assistance of Hank Jones, piano; Milt Hinton, bass; and Osie Johnson, drums. On all the other selections Dave McKenna replaces Jones on piano and Dick Sherman is added on trumpet.

SIDE ONE

Mediolistic, an original by drummer Osie Johnson, opens with a medium-tempoed ensemble chorus in which the first tenor break is by Al, the second by Zoot. After a brief two-horn passage, Al takes off on a solo which is followed, after an ensemble bit, by Zoot’s solo. Dick Sherman and Dave McKenna each get solo chances before the final ensemble in which Osie Johnson has a brief moment in the spotlight on the bridge.

Crimea River, a title that stretches things pretty far, even in pun, was written by Ralph Burns and has much of that haunting dreaminess that Burns has brought to ballad writing ever since he composed Early Autumn. The first ensemble chorus is followed by one that is split between the two tenor stars, Al taking the first half and Zoot the second.

A New Moan is a Manny Albam conception developed over an easy, relaxed beat. Al takes up the solo cudgels first. The second chorus is split between Dick Sherman’s trumpet and Zoot. Al shares the third chorus with some of Dave McKenna’s rugged piano.

A Moment’s Notice, a bright, cheery little bouncer by Ernie Wilkins, once more gives Al the first solo opportunity. Next, Dick Sherman takes the spotlight with the two saxophones humming behind him, Zoot has a solo chorus and, finally, Dave McKenna goes it alone.

My Blues is a slow, gut-deep blues written by Al Cohn. Milt Hinton’s bass brings on Dick Sherman in a soulful trumpet mood. The saxophones breathe along beside him until Zoot moves in, later giving way to Al, both of them playing with rich, strong feeling. The whole group goes out wailing, for real.

Sandy’s Swing, a catchy, up-tempo idea by trombonist Milty Gold, gives both Zoot and Al a chance to ride hard. Zoot takes off first, after the ensemble opening. Dick Sherman is up next, then Al, and the last full chorus solo is Dave McKenna’s, a fine sample of his great swinging sense. After Dave’s solo, Zoot, Al and Dick Sherman (in that order) take four bars each for one chorus.

SIDE TWO

Somebody Loves Me introduces the quintet for the first time (Sherman out, Hank Jones in place of McKenna). Al and Zoot examine this hardy perennial at an up-tempo. On the first chorus duet, Zoot carries the melody with Al going out alone at the bridge. The second chorus is Al’s, the third Zoot’s. On the fourth they take eight bars each with Al starting things off, while on the fifth chorus they share four-bar solos with Al again leading until they hit the bridge when they team up in unison. Al takes the melody in the final eight-bar duet.

More Bread, another contribution by Ernie Wilkins, brings back the sextet and shows Zoot and Al playing in such unison at the opening that, as Al points out, “it’s hard to tell there are two of us, we’re so well in tune.” Al takes the first solo and, after Dick Sherman’s spot, Zoot comes on.

Sherm’s Terms, again a sextet number, was written by Dick Sherman. In the ensemble introduction, Al and Zoot each take two-bar breaks, Al going first and winding it up as he moves on into his solo. He splits this chorus with Zoot, who takes the last half. After solos by Sherman and Dave McKenna, the next chorus gives Al, Sherman, Zoot and McKenna (in that order) short solo spots. The windup goes back to the opening ensemble with Al and Zoot again taking two-bar breaks.

From A to Z, an Al Cohn creation, is a quintet number, first cooked up for the Birdland date. The two tenor men take off at a gallop with Zoot getting the first solo chorus (notice his easy flow at a fast tempo), Al taking the next chorus, then both blowing eight bars each for a chorus with Zoot going first. On the following chorus, they alternate four-bar passages with drummer Osie Johnson, Zoot again going to bat first.

East of the Sun (And West of the Moon), another quintet number, is an easygoing, melodic exposition. On the first chorus, a duet, Al takes the melody for the first sixteen bars and Zoot picks it up for the last sixteen. Al follows with a light and delicate solo chorus, Zoot takes the next chorus with Milt Hinton’s strong bass in close behind him. The final chorus starts with Al and Zoot sharing four-bar solos, Al going first, and then Al takes the melody on out.

Tenor for Two Please, Jack is Zoot’s compositional contribution, featuring the quintet once more. The two tenors open in unison, without the piano, and when they zoom off Zoot is out front with Al taking over for the bridge of the first chorus. The next two choruses are Zoot’s alone and the succeeding two go to Al. Then they battle each other with eight-bar solos for a chorus, with Zoot up first. On the next chorus, they cut the area of combat to four bars each, Zoot still swinging first, and finally they go back to the opening unison figure with Osie Johnson getting his sticks in for a break at the bridge.