San Francisco Examiner
C.H. Garrigues : 04/27/1958

Another of the fine Blue Note series featuring a group of young hornmen including Jordan, tenor; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone; and John Jenkins, alto, against a veteran rhythm section of Ray Bryant, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. An excellent example of sensitive but swinging modern jazz.

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Down Beat : 05/15/1958
John A. Tynan : 3.5 stars

Another in the Blue Note series of blowing sessions, this one is strengthened considerably by the presence of Morgan’s vivid trumpet on all tracks except Guilty and Shoes. Leader Jordan is the 26-year-old Chicagoan who previously has recoded with Chambers and fellow Windy Cityite, tenorman John Gilmore. This is the first LP in which he is billed as leader.

Jordan’s tone is big and tough, much like that of Sonny Rollins. His fashionable hard-bitten approach is illuminated by a decided originality, a direct simplicity of statement which, for the most part, steers clear of superfast technique. Inasmuch as this is his album, one wonders why he wasn’t given opportunity to blow at least one track sustained by rhythm section alone. The results would have been quite telling.

The other horns play well in all selections, with Morgan particularly outstanding in Horizon, blowing a brilliant open horn, and in the medium-tempoed blues, Ju-Ba, where he confines himself to pungent muted statements.

Bryant, Chambers, and Taylor are appropriately driving as a section, although Taylor does intrude somewhat at times with his rat-a-tats behind soloists. The reasoning behind this peculiar device is somewhat puzzling. One knows the drummer is present – one’s ears testify to the fact. Why then must he forcefully emphasize his presence in so crude a manner?

A good blowing date with better-than-average solos all around but not particularly distinguished an album in view of others of similar kind already on the market. Recommended more for admirers of the specific musicians involved than for the general jazz buyer.

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Liner Notes by Robert Levin

Not long ago, during the course of an interview, Horace Silver told me:
“…It was hard getting a record date before the LP but now it seems that anybody and his brother can get a date. I mean a cat takes one lesson and he thinks he’s ready and so he gets together with a bunch of other cats who also have had only one lesson and they record. of course I’m exaggerating but the true situation in some cases is almost as ridiculous. Cats like that aren’t fooling anybody but themselves. The public knows what’s happening. But in a way I’m glad the opportunity has presented itself. It’s giving a lot of really good musicians a chance to get heard – guys like Cliff Jordan and Curtis Fuller…”

Horace’s comment holds much significance in both its negative and positive aspects. He is right when he says, in effect, that a great many not-yet-ready and/or undeserving musicians have been granted a recording date. He is also right when he mentions the good the LP has brought about by offering full exposure to relatively unknown musicians of exceptional talent – “Guys like Cliff Jordan and Curtis Fuller.”

The answer, in the main, lies in the musical perceptiveness of recording company executives. If their motive to record the budding artist stems from a sincere and intelligent faith in his talent then (though the move may still represent a gamble both musically and commercially) one can be happy over the advent of the LP and the boom it has initiated.

Alfred Lion’s motive to record Cliff Jordan coincides with the above statement and a quick glance at the Blue Note catalog will show that this very “hip” gentleman has made few mistakes.

Jimmy Smith, Horace Silver, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Griffin and many others were all practically unheard of outside of their own areas before they recorded for Blue Note. Each achieved recognition because each is extremely talented and because Blue Note had the foresight to recognize their talent and give them the chance to display it.

Cliff Jordan is here represented for the third time on the Blue Note label. (He can be heard on Blowing in From Chicago, BLP 1549, in which he shares spotlight honors with tenor John Gilmore and Paul Chambers, BLP 1564). He was born in Chicago and has been playing tenor sax for the past eleven of his twenty-six years. At this writing he is a member of the Horace Silver quintet (having just completed for weeks with Max Roach) and Horace can speak in nothing but superlatives about him. Cliff has a strong, virile tone that is similar in essence to Sonny Rollins (a might influence on so many of today’s young tenor men) but he is by no means an ersatz Rollins. His conception is personal, fresh and exciting and he will, no doubt, rank high in the “New Star” polls.

Cliff attended DuSable High School in Chicago and among his classmates were Griffin, Gilmore and John Jenkins.

Jenkins is the latest of the “DuSable High Gang” to be imported to New York. John was born on January 3, 1931 and began his musical studies on the clarinet. He switched to alto sax after he heard Charlie Parker and played in the DuSable band where he met and became friendly with Jordan. He gigged on and off with Cliff and people like Art Farmer and for a while led his own group at the Beehive. The group would alternate with “name” unites passing through. He has been playing now for approximately ten years and came to New York in March, 1957 working for a short time with Charlie Mingus and recording with Hank Mobley, BLP 1560. His four favorite musicians are: Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt.

Lee Morgan, who is heard here on all the tunes but Not Guilty and Blue Shoes, was only eighteen when he recorded his first LP for Blue Note (Lee Morgan Indeed, BLP 1538) but he was already a mature and moving soloist. His sound and method of attack relate to the Gillespie, Navarro, Brown school and he is currently featured in Dizzy’s sensational big band. He fronts his own sextet on BLP 1538, BLP 1541, BLP 1557 and is on Hank Mobley’s album, BLP 1540.

Curtis Fuller, whose trombone playing is held in high esteem by Silver, Miles Davis and many other “knowing” stars is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He was born on December 15, 1934 and graduated high school when he was only sixteen. He attended Wayne University and worked at various odd jobs to get together enough money to buy a horn, then played with Nat and “Cannonball” Adderley, Junior Mance, Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams and Tommy Flanagan and taught music at Detroit University before coming to New York. He is considered by many to be the next J.J. Johnson and is now under exclusive contract to Blue Note. Curtis has his own side, due out shortly, The Opener, BLP 1567.

Pianist Ray Bryant, like Lee Morgan, is a Philadelphian who was born December 24, 1931. He began his musical career by playing bass (as did his eldest brother) in his junior high school band but soon afterward took up the piano and worked often at Jack Field’s Blue Note Club in Philly. He sports an easy, flowing line and has played with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and many others of import in modern jazz.

Paul Chambers should be familiar to Blue Note fans. His bass has rapidly become the finest in contemporary jazz. He has three of his own LPs on Blue Note (BLP 1534, BLP 1564, BLP 1569), and can be heard with Kenny Burrell, BLP 1523, Lee Morgan, BLP 1541, Hank Mobley, BLP 1540, and many others.

Drummer Art Taylor, of the Roach-Blakey school is one of the most sought after of modern drummers and the only musician on this date who hails from New York. He has played with practically everyone including Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, George Wallington, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Lennie Tristano, Jackie McLean, Sonny Rollins and most recently with the Miles Davis quintet.

Cliff’s pensively inflected, Not Guilty, which opens the session is “not guilty” of banality, dullness or triteness but is most certainly guilty of swinging and fine, pertinent blowing. Cliff, Curtis, John, Ray and Paul, in that order. St. John, by Jenkins, suggests a happy mood and features exuberant solos by all the horns and Bryant.

Curtis Fuller’s Blue Shoes are size funk and fit everyone (Curtis, Cliff, John, Paul and Ray are the soloists) easily and comfortably. A brief piano intro and then Cliff comes out wailing on the standard, Beyond The Blue Horizon, followed by Lee’s racing trumpet and equally swift statements by Curtis, John and Ray. Cliff and Art trade some fours before Cliff takes it out. Lee’s muted trumpet opens and closes his Ju-Ba, a provocative “way down” blues (minus Fuller). Cliff’s solo is his best on record; soulful, poignant and gutted deep in the blues, and John who follows extends the mood with two flowing choruses steeped eloquently in the Parker tradition.

I must point out that while Art Taylor receives little solo space in this set, his steady and intuitive rhythmic sense is a continuous gas throughout.

Listen once to the musical contents contained herein and you will be assured that Cliff and the musicians associated with him have had a good deal more than “one” lesson – in fact I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find them all becoming teachers in the not too distant future.