Miami Herald
Fred Sherman : 12/01/1957

Flute Soufflé with Herbie Mann and Bobby Jaspar and rhythm from Joe Puma, guitar; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Bobby Donaldson, drums, and Wendell Marhsall, bass. Four tracks; two compositions by Mann, one by Puma and the fourth is Charlie Parker‘s Chasing the Bir. The Mann and Jaspar flutes and tenor saxes stay high and light. No funk, just fun.

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Oakland Tribune
Russ Wilson : 09/29/1957

Herbie Mann and Bobby Jaspar, two of the foremost jazz flutists, are featured in this pleasant outing on which both also blow tenor sax. A fine rhythm section contributes to making this a dish which for all its airiness is substantial.

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Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
Robert C. Smith : 12/22/1957

Flutist Herbie Mann illustrates the jazzman’s concentration on texture in a couple of new releases. He pairs with Bobby Jaspar on Flute Soufflé and the twosome employs alto flutes and tenor saxes in addition to the flutes to get the balance of sound they want to go with the four man rhythm section. Joe Puma‘s guitar and Tommy Flanagan‘s piano make this a really exciting album, with Tel Aviv and Chasing the Bird first-rate.

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Down Beat : 11/28/1957
Don Gold : 4 stars

Without setting out to bash the listener over the head with special effects or pretentious compositions, Mann and Jaspar have created a very enjoyable LP.

Essentially, this is a flutists’ LP, with both men up to the occasion. On tenor, too, both play with authority, but the most rewarding moments come in the form of flute passages.

The compositions include two by Mann, Tel Aviv and March; one by Puma, Somewhere, and Bird‘s Chasing. Each has merit, but I was most moved by Tel Aviv, a moody chart with Hebraic overtones. On it, Mann plays moving alto flute and Jaspar contributes some forceful tenor, with Flanagan, Puma, Marshall, and Donaldson in equally pensive moods.

On Somewhere, the two play both tenor and flute. On March, a minor blues, and Chasing, both play flute. The latter features a fascinating series of fours.

On flute, Mann urges interesting melodic and rhythmic figures from the instrument. Jaspar excels on tenor, gradually emerging from previous influences to maintain a sound and conception of his own. Flanagan is not an innovator, but plays in a technically fluent, inspired fashion here. Puma plays effectively, too, and Marshall and Donaldson never intrude, a great virtue in itself.

Mann’s ability and Jaspar’s promise are worth hearing. This contains some of their best expressions to date.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Do you remember when saxophone players used to double on clarinet? That was back aways. Since then the clarinet has more or less gone out of vogue and now saxophonists double on flute. What presumably was ignited in the Thirties by Wayman Carver (the flute ay have been played in jazz before but Carver is remembered on records with the Little Chicks unit of the Chick Webb band) and fanned briefly by Harry Klee in the Forties with the Ray Linn recording group on Encore (a now defunct Hollywood label), has burst into full flame in the Fifties with players such as Frank Wess, Bud Shank, Jerome Richardson, Sam Most, Buddy Collette and the two men who are featured here in Flute Soufflé, Herbie Mann and Bobby Jaspar, all devoting as much, if not more time to the flute as to the saxophone.

Mann is now primarily a flutist who doubles on tenor where-as Jaspar is still considered a tenor player although he is well known for his flute work too.

Both came to prominence in the Fifties; Herbie with accordionist Mat Mathews in 1953-54, a flute duet group with Sam Most in 1956 and finally his own unit; Bobby in Paris with his own quintet from 1954 to 1956 and in the United States with Jay Jay Johnson since the fall of the latter year.

In Flute Soufflé, Mann and Jaspar combine their talents for the first time. What they create is light and airy soundwise but the basic jazz ingredients embodied in their flutes give their dish body too. Nor do they neglect their tenors. Somewhere Else, a line by Joe Puma, features both on saxophone as well as flute and Mann’s threnodic Tel Aviv finds Jaspar exclusively on saxophone while Herbie switches to alto flute. A minor blues by Mann Let’s March, and Charlie Parker’s contrapuntal Chasing The Bird are wholly flute flights insofar as the principals are concerned.

The light, but insistently, swinging rhythm section also releases its own members for solos. Tommy Flanagan and Joe Puma are heard to excellent advantage in al numbers; Wendell Marshall has a sonorous, moving bit in Tel Aviv while Bobby Donaldson has the last bridge on Chasing The Bird and short bits at the end of Let’s March.

On tenor, Mann shows an affinity to Al Cohn, while Jaspar continues to be influenced by Stan Getz but in a far less specific way and also shows that he has listened to Zoot Sims since coming to New York.

Flutewise, Mann has more of a birdlike quality with a penchant for the upper reaches while Jaspar’s sound is more elliptical.

The identifying solo order is as follows:

Let’s March – 1st flute, Mann; 2nd flute, Jaspar
Tel Aviv – tenor, Jaspar; alto flute, Mann
Somewhere Else – 1st tenor, Mann; 1st flute, Jaspar; 2nd flute, Mann; 2nd tenor, Jaspar
Chasing The Bird – 1st flute, Jaspar; 2nd flute, Mann; fours, Jaspar & Mann