Billboard : 05/19/1956
Score of 77

This LP contains all the material previously available on the 10-inch LP of the same title (Blue Note LP 5401) plus an alternative master of Ornithology, It Could Happen to You, Over the Rainbow and You Go to My Head. Recorded in 1953, these sides are regarded by critics to be some of the finest that Powell ever cut. This LP will be a “must” inventory item for a long time to come.

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Liner Notes by Leonard Feather

Between these covers lies the harvest of a journey through the mind of Bud Powell. It is a journey in which beauty and darkness, pleasure and sorrow are to be gleaned along the way; for this mind is a strange land, endowed with a glow of genius yet beset by illness and deprivation.

Bud Powell’s career has been an erratic one, gregarious months along 52nd Street alternating with lonely months in the hospital. For all the inconsistency of his march to fame, he has managed to earn the unanimous admiration of his contemporaries and to forge an ineradicable place for himself in the international hall of jazz fame.

Born Earl Powell in New York City on Sept. 27, 1924, he is one of three brothers; Richie Powell, who is a few years older, plays piano with the Max Roach–Clifford Brown combo. Bud gained his early experience playing teen-aged gigs around Manhattan and Brooklyn; some of his earliest jobs were with Valaida Snow and the Sunset Royal Orchestra, and at the late Canada Lee‘s Chicken Coop.

A frequent denizen of the Play House (better known as Minton’s) during its years as an incubator of new jazz talent, Bud first showed signs of an incipient bop style before the word bop itself was coined, as can be confirmed by some early recordings with Cootie Williams‘ band in 1943-4. During the rest of the 1940s he was a part of that loosely-knit clique of restless souls with something new and exciting to tell the world and few places in which to tell it but the smaller and smokier night clubs and the growing world of combo recording. It was during this period that Bud’s rocket-swift, indomitable single-note lines and moody, mordant harmonic inventions made so deep an impression on Alfred Lion of Blue Note that starting in 1949 a series of wonderful recording sessions took place. All of these, in addition to some takes never before issued, have now been made available in Blue Note’s first 12-inch Bud Powell LP releases.

BLP 1504

Reets and l is built on a theme by “Little Bennie“ Harris; it is named for Bennie and his wife. Its foundation is the All God’s Children chord pattern. Autumn In New York is a remarkable demonstration of Bud’s ability to retain the essence of a popular melody while investing it with his own personality. An interesting departure is Bud’s overlapping of the 24th and 25th measures, which has the effect of telescoping the melody into a 31-bar chorus.

In I Want To Be Happy Bud changes the melody slightly on the third and fourth measure to make them fit a diminished chord. George Duvivier, who worked closely with Bud in preparing this date, has a remarkable chorus on his own.

It Could Happen To You shows Bud adopting what might be called the Tatum approach to a ballad, playing it first ad lib, then in tempo, without accompaniment. Bop is a secondary ingredient, chords spell the single-note passages, and Bud is on interestingly neutral ground.

Sure Thing, a 1943 Jerome Kern song, shows remarkable cooperation between Bud and Duvivier; especially on the passages for which Bud’s left hand and George’s bass line are locked in unison. On Polka Dots And Moonbeams Bud hugs the melody as closely as if he were Garner, while sparking it with that unique incisiveness of touch and perfect timing and placement of right-hand chords that make an unmistakable Powell sound.

Glass Enclosure ranks with Un Poco Loco among Bud’s greatest. It was built up from an odd theme that Alfred Lion heard him play one night when visiting his apartment. Greatly impressed, Lion asked what it was. Bud said he had something in mind that he was trying to express; Lion repeatedly asked him about it and encouraged him to continue. A few days later he heard the idea further advanced; by the next time, Powell had worked out the pattern and Duvivier put the parts down in writing. Glass Enclosure is more or less in four movements: the first somewhat maestoso, the next a swinging fragment on two 10-bar phrases; then a pensive yet flowing movement with a stirring bowed-bass underline, followed by a reminder of the first movement.

Oscar Pettiford‘s Collard Greens and Black-Eye Peas (also known as Blues In The Closet) is some swinging ad-lib blues with Bud, Duvivier and drummer Art Taylor all featured. Over The Rainbow and You Go To My Head are patterned along similar lines to the other ballads; Audrey is a trickily constructed 12-bar original. Finally Ornithology offers a longer, slower take that provides a most intriguing contrast with the largely different improvisation around these chords on BLP 1503.