Billboard : 03/30/1957
Jazz Talent Album

Considering the difficulty of selling a new name in the jazz field, Am-Par ingeniously gave young Sullivan a “sponsor” – popular pianist Taylor, and also one of the better covers of the year. Sullivan is the rich-man’s Eddie Shu, playing both trumpet and tenor sax, but very well, in the modern semi-hard-bop manner. While his sound on both could use a more tutored quality, his invention and feeling are strong. If he continues to grow, he will be a major jazz entity. Mostly good standard tunes here, and a couple of “down” originals.

Album Cover of the Week

Unusual combination of subject matter, photographed in full color by Fonssagrives with the realistic effect of a Harnett paining. Design is by Fran Scott, and it’s another sure-fire attention-getter. The quality of the reproduction, particularly of the trumpet’s brass color, sets a standard for others to aim at.

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Providence Journal
Philip C. Gunion : 04/14/1957

ABC-Paramount has a new Billy Taylor LP called Billy Taylor Introduces Ira Sullivan. Sullivan is a trumpet player in the modern idiom, who sounds slightly like Miles Davis and Chet Baker, but who winds up with a style of his own. He has been a member of the Jazz Messengers under Art Blakey.

It is a pleasant program and the Taylor trio is, as usual, outstanding behind the trumpet and in its moments alone.

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Washington Post
Paul Sampson : 04/14/1957

Taylor, who has verged on being too polite in recent LPs, is more forceful in The Billy Taylor Trio Introduces Ira Sullivan. Sullivan plays trumpet with a good tone and facility and shows signs of becoming first-rate. Taylor’s solos are excellent, and the whole LP achieves a relaxed, swinging sound. Drummer E. Thigpen, who displays a commendable concern for the sound he produces, is a major asset.

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Wichita Falls Times
Jim Seaver : 06/16/1957

Arrival of another young jazz artist, Ira Sullivan, is heralded on the disk, The Billy Taylor Trio Introduces Ira Sullivan. This neat platter brings Sullivan and his magically melodic trumpet into the jazz record world.

His imaginative approach reflects experience gained at an early age playing with such greats as Charlie Parker and Herbie Fields. Sullivan, who is equally as proficient on a tenor sax, has played opposite the fabulous George Shearing in Chicago’s Old Blue Note. Backing Sullivan are the talents of Billy Taylor at piano, Ed Thigpen, drums, and Earl May, bass.

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Down Beat : 06/13/1957
Dom Cerulli : 3.5 stars

If every track had the pace and excitement generated by the group on So in Love and Leslie’s Gauge, this would have been one of THE albums of the season. As it is, it is a generally swinging collection, sparked by Taylor‘s fleet but precise piano.

Sullivan, a grad of the Jazz Messengers, picks up an alto on They Can’t Take That Away from Me. But he is more incisive on his trumpet than on the reeds. He finishes his chorus on They Can’t with a figure that Billy scoops up and toys with expertly and not without sparks.

On trumpet, Sullivan is soft-spoken but articulate. There’s humor and warmth in his choruses (as on Gauge and Strolling), and backbone to his tone when he feels some is needed. Earl May is heard wailing in solo spots and backing splendidly throughout. The sound is lustrous, and the cover, although not tied in to the subject matter of the record, is surely one of the handsomest to grace a jazz recording.

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Liner Notes by Ira Sullivan

Billy Taylor heard Ira playing with the Jazz Messengers at Birdland. Billy, impressed with Ira’s work, brought him to the attention of ABC-Paramount – thus the brightly swinging and stomping musical events inside.

My father, who collected and played instruments as a hobby, began teaching me trumpet when I was four. This was 1936. We lived in Chicago.

I played all through grammar school in the school concert band, meanwhile developing my ear by listening to and copying records (Clyde McCoy‘s Sugar Blues, etc.).

I attended Lakeview High School, during which time (between the ages of 14 and 15) my chief influence was Harry James. Then, through a high school friend, I had my first taste of jazz – Lester Young, Chu Berry, Roy Eldridge, the Bean, Don Byas, Art Tatum, et al. Then I heard Bird and Diz! Needless to say, this had a profound influence on my playing, so much so that I stopped playing for three months and just listened. At the age of sixteen, I started jamming around Chicago with local jazzmen, then just youngsters themselves – Cy Touff, Jimmy Gourley, Jimmy Raney, Sandy Mosse, Ike Day, Eddy Baker, Billy Cannon, Wilbur Ware.

This was my conservatory training.

I began toying with an old C melody sax. Again, Dad stepped in to show me the fingering on the horn. Six months later, I had a gig on alto sax. I found that the gigs I couldn’t get on trumpet, I was able to get because I played sax. I worked as a trumpet man with Herbie Fields at the now defunct Club Silhouette for two weeks around 1949. I worked locally until my first big break came through Frank Holzfeind, when I appeared opposite George Shearing at the old Blue Note, in 1952.

I led my own group until early 1954, when I went into Chicago’s Beehive Lounge as a single working with the house band, the Norm Simmons Trio. This was my first post-graduate course. I got to work with such greats as the late Wardell Gray, Bennie Green, Howard McGhee, Sonny Stitt, Roy Eldridge, Prez, and finally… Charlie Parker. The four days at the Hive with Bird were the most thrilling of my life. I felt that I had met not only a tremendously inspirational musician, but a warm, sincere, and beautifully sensitive man. He asked me to come to New York to work with him and I looked forward to this with the greatest delight. A month later he died. He continues to be my greatest source of inspiration.

I continued on at the Beehive, cutting my first LP with Red Rodney‘s group in June of 1955. There were more local jobs until June 1956, when I was called to New York to join Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers – another richly rewarding musical experience.

While in New York, I concentrated on my trumpet, which has always been my first love. I had been known in Chicago mainly as a saxophone player. New York completely captured my heart and I intend to make it my home.

Having had no professional schooling in music to date, I cannot theorize or analyze or explain why I play jazz from any technical standpoint. It feels good to play. It feels especially good to swing. There’s no feeling like the one you get when a group of musicians swing as one. The rapport that is established is devastating and it can only build in intensity the harder you swing. I love this feeling and never tire of striving to reach it. In summing up, I can only repeat what I’ve said so many times before… I want to play my horn. I’ve always wanted to play my horn. I will always want to play my horn, and in so doing, if just one person can hear what I’m saying, I’ll be happy. I hope you can hear me.