Billboard : 04/07/1958
Three stars

A swingin’ four-set album in which all of the principals are featured to advantage. Standout track is Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, where they all get a chance to wail. Other tunes are Illinois Jacquet’s Robbin’s Nest and two Mal Waldron originals, Wheelin’ and Dealin’. Hard bop fans should take to this easily.

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Audio
Charles A. Robertson : August, 1958

Charted by pianist Mal Waldron to showcase the distinet styles of a trio of leading tenormen, this date is further leavened by the contrasting flute work of Frank Wess, who outlines the theme in most eases before switching instruments to swap choruses with Paul Quinichette and John Coltrane. The title stems from two blues, Wheelin’, a fast Basie-inspired dazzler, and Dealin’, a plaintive minor-keyed opus characteristic of the composer. Included are Robbins’ Nest, and Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.

It is a partial answer for those persons who have been waiting to hear how the potent force of Coltrane would mix in such company. His solos flow logically and fit into the over-all pattern, either as climactic accents or as solid structures for the others to build on. There can be no doubt of his individual jazz voice and the fortunes of recording may yet team him with Thelonious Monk for the space of a complete LP. Doug Watkins, bass, and Arthur Taylor, drums, fill out the rhythm section.

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Metronome
Bill Coss : July, 1958

Wheelin’ and Dealin’ are two originals by Mal Waldron, for himself and something of a tenor battle between Frank Wess, Paul Quinichette and John Coltrane. Actually, there isn’t much of a battle; every one seems to be friends which is really more pleasant anyway. Things get heavy-handed from time to time nevertheless, but among the hard-bop records, this one stands pretty high and Mal Waldron continues to be an interesting voice within this groove, probably because he has so much more varied a background than any of the rest.

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San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, CA)
Ralph J. Gleason : 05/11/1958

Three tenor men, F. Wess, J. Coltrane and P. Quinichette blow extended choruses on two originals (the two halves of the title) and Robbins’ Nest and Things Ain’t What They Used to Be. It’s a very good LP even if spotty, since Coltrane blows very well and Quinichette and Wess are much more hard-blowing than usual. Things Ain’t What They Used to Be is a Mercer Ellington tune originally called Times A-Wastin’; it’s been done by a lot of big bands and other groups but this is one of the few treatments of it by modern soloists. Good illuminating notes by Ira Gitler.

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Down Beat : 07/24/1958
John A. Tynan : 4 stars

In many ways this is a fascinating album. Waldron’s brief arrangements ideally serve merely to set the state for the horns and his own singular piano style. On both title tunes, Wess plays tenor; on Things and Robbins’ he sticks to flute, opening the first number with a beginning straight chorus followed by five solo jazz choruses.

Wess’ flute is lean and tough, devoid of fancy embroidery, concentrating on hard-driving, funky statements. His most exciting tenor performance here is to be heard on Dealin’, a minor, medium, walking blues on which he plays both instruments.

Pairing Coltrane and Quinichette on any record today is certainly an idea to conjure with. In this instance it serves to illustrate graphically the dramatic difference in style and era between hard modernist Trane and Prez-loyalist Quinichette. While the latter does not appear in top form here (his tone falters repeatedly), he makes abundantly clear his tenor philosophy, i.e., the closest possible copy of Lester Young of the early 1940s. Suffice it to say, he is sadly carved by the furious Coltrane.

Heavily contributing to the general solo excitement generated by the three blowing tenors is the unfailing time of drummer Taylor and his mate, Watkins. As for Mal’s unique piano, dig what happens in the middle of his solo on Wheelin’ as he plays with and turns around simple melodic ideas. This is an album worth having.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler
February, 1958

For those who like their saxophone soup served piping hot, here are three pretty hot pipers with Frank Wess’ flute no vichyssoise either.

Pianist-composer-arranger Mal Waldron charted out the course of this session which includes the two title-number blues, Wheelin’ and Dealin’, Sir Charles Thompson’s Robbins’ Nest and Mercer Ellington‘s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.

The three tenormen represent distinct styles of playing but blend well as a section nevertheless.

Frank Wess was born in Kansas City in 1922. He started on alto sax in Oklahoma and continued on tenor sax in Washington, D.C. with the house band at the Howard Theatre. After Army service (1941-1944) he worked with the bands of Billy Eckstine, Eddie Heywood and Lucky Millinder. In 1949 he returned to Washington where he worked with local combos and studied the flute. With Count Basie since 1953, Frank was first featured on tenor and periodic flute forays. During the band’s 1957 personnel changes, he shifted over to alto but continued to be heard on his other two instruments.

His tenor playing smacks of several influences; in the main, he is out of the Hawkins-Webster mold with touches of Lester Young and a general Parker idiom imprint. The latter characteristic is more evident in phrasing than harmonically and has been acquired through long association with modern musicians.

The Wess flute is more uniformly modern; his wide use of it helped establish the flute in jazz.

Paul Quinichette is sometimes known as “The Kid From Denver” indicating the Colorado city in which he was born in 1921. More often he is called the “Vice Pres” because of his similarity in style and sound to Lester “Pres” Young. Unlike the “Brothers” (Sims, Getz, Cohn) who have used their Prezian influence as a point of departure, Paul has remained directly in the Young style. It has been pointed out that he strongly approximates the Pres of the late Thirties-early Forties but he also shows that the more florid, late Forties-early Fifties style of the President, beginning with some of the Aladdin sides (Saxobebop) and culminating with the Mercury recordings (Up ‘N Adam), has crept into his playing too.

Vice Pres played with the bands of Jay McShann, Louis Jordan and Lucky Millinder in the Forties. In 1951 he left Hot Lips Page’s combo to join Count Basie and remained with the Count until 1953. It was then he acquired his nickname.

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1926 but did the majority of his important studying and playing in Philadelphia. Several Philadeiphia musicians were heard in Dizzy Gillespie’s band of the late Forties and Coltrane was one of them. Others were Jimmy Heath, Nelson Boyd, Specs Wright and Jimmy Foreman. When the band broke up, Trane, who had been playing alto, switched to tenor and remained with Diz in the small group in 1950-51. After spending the next three years with the Earl Bostic and Johnny Hodges combos, Trane came into his own with the Miles Davis quintet from the fall of 1955 until the middle of 1957. He developed further during the remainder of that year with the Thelonious Monk quartet and in a quintet with Donald Byrd and Red Garland.

Trane’s main influences have been Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt but in his own very personal style he has gone beyond them harmonically in certain ways.

The rhythm section is composed of three gentlemen who would be well acquainted if they met nowhere but on Prestige recording dates. Their playing reflects this familiarity. Waldron, as a soloist as well as a com- poser, is aware of structure and the power generated by the manipulation of rhythmic figures.

The blues, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, by Mercer and Duke Ellington has Wess stating the melody on flute and then soloing for five choruses. The tenors play backgrounds in the first, fourth and fifth choruses with the ones in the first especially reminiscing. Quinichette and Coltrane take two choruses apiece and then repeat this pattern. Trane exhibits the influence of Monk during his last chorus. After Waldron plays two, Watkins bows one and Wess returns for the final chorus.

Waldron’s fast blues, Wheelin’, , is a spirited Basie-type wailer (vintage 1950’s). The order of the soloists is Coltrane, Quinichette and Wess (tenor only this time). First they play three choruses apiece, then two apiece and finally four rounds of one apiece. Waldron then stretches out on a sequence of choruses that numbers double figures and keeps the momentum that the tenors built going. A drum chorus by Taylor prefaces the theme.

Robbins’ Nest was first introduced in the Forties by Illinois Jacquet during one of his quieter moments. Dedicated, at that time, to disc jockey Fred Robbins (long since departed from the jazz scene), it was written by Sir Charles Thompson, then Jacquet’s pianist. Wess, on flute, carries the melody, except in the bridge where the tenors do as he plays fills. Frank stays on flute and solos for three choruses, followed by Quinichette and Coltrane in solos of the same length. Waldron has two, Watkins one (plucked) and the theme is stated again.

The minor-key blues, Dealin’, by Waldron, is medium-tempoed and sad-themed. Mal opens the soloing with two choruses; Wess, on flute, has four, as does Quinichette. Coltrane blows three and Wess returns on tenor for four more. Waldron comes back for three before the lugubrious melody closes the lid.