San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 06/26/1956

A tall, sandy-haired young man by the name of Zoot Sims is one of the few good tenor saxophone players who hasn’t half a dozen albums to his credit. That’s what makes his Storyville LP Tonight’s Music, Today of more than usual interest.

Sims plays with considerable debt to the free-swinging concepts of Lester Young, but he does so in an effortless and fluid style that is not imitation and is infectious. Bob Brookmeyer, who plays valve trombone on the album, is much more relaxed than usual and the combination of the two horns is an unusually happy one. The rhythm section of Gus Johnson, Bull Reuther and Hank Jones provides a smoothly swinging base and occasional solos. All in all, this is a most pleasant album, with very good playing. Zoot, by the way, sings the blues on one number.

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Saturday Review
Whitney Balliett : 10/13/1956

An invigorating course in five-part invention (Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer, Hank Jones, Wyatt Reuther, Gus Johnson) that is full of intelligent solos, bounce, and a healthy professionalism. Six standards and two originals, including a blues on which Sims sings, as it were.

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Virginian-Pilot
Robert C. Smith : 07/22/1956

Sims and Brookmeyer have an LP that challenges anything the Getz group has produced. Titled Tonight’s Music Today for no discernable reason, it has the pair working with Hank Jones on piano, Wyatt Reuther, bass, and Gus Johnson, drums. Zoot and Bobby swing harder together, or rather Zoot’s style is more rhythmic than Stan’s, though the former is not equipped with Getz’ melodic ear. The Storyville set has brilliant Sims and Brookmeyer solos on How Long Has This Been Going On, and Zoot’s Tune, while the remainder of the proceedings are equally invigorating. Zoot sings one blues tune and Jones taps the celeste for occasional variety.

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Down Beat : 07/11/1956
Nat Hentoff : 5 stars

Tonight’s Jazz Today, a rather silly title, masks one of the most relaxed, informal small combo sessions in many months and marks Storyville’s best session to date. The wholly integrated unit is made up of Zoot, Bobby, Gus Johnson, and Wyatt Reuther, once bassist with Brubeck. The blowing of the co-leaders is of the highest caliber throughout. As on their recent Dawn LP – now cut by this set – Brookmeyer’s swinging subtlety is a just right compliment for Zoot’s big-boned, full-fleshed horn. The rhythm section is flexible and swinging. Hank‘s solo spots flow as usual as models of expert and virile lyricism.

The program is well balanced, better balanced in fact, than most jazz LPs. The opener is a loosening version of the Steve Allen-authored Mr. Moon them for his Tonight show. The rocking Chant is Gerry Mulligan‘s. Dig also the wonderfully easy blues with the added attractions of Hank on on celeste and Zoot taking his first (to my knowledge) blues vocal on record, a pragmatic, Marlon Brando-type declaration of love.

The two other originals are one apiece by Brookmeyer and Sims. Recording quality is very good, better than the Dawn, except for an engineering lapse on bringing up the gain for Hank’s piano at the beginning of How Long and Blue Skies. Notes are by the Rev. Norman J. O’Connor, C.S.P., one writer on jazz who has never let his sense of humor and perspective dim.

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Liner Notes by Rev. Norman J. O’Connor

Liner notes, once a most innocent pastime, have now become a controversial activity. In fact, the two leading jazz periodicals recently did most animated and satiric surveys of the current activity in the field. Once you have read these, you resume the writing of album notes with grave doubts and hesitation – possibly you should stay out.

What has been obvious for some time – and the above mentioned articles were too happy to point this out – is that the notes were beginning to resemble the literary ukases and butcher-paper artistic and esthetic statements that came from decayed boathouses on the muddy Seine and mice-ridden apartments on the Left Bank back in the happy days of Paris in the Twenties. Even the covers of the albums have the same feeling.

Fortunately, humor, always a strong strand in the jazz fabric, rescues us from the liners that tell the author’s rambles from a period in Soapy’s on Second Street all the way up town to a dime beer at Sudsy’s on First Avenue just north of the Bridge. There is a happy medium somewhere in the midtown area: where a little more than just a listing of the composers and their numbers played and the musicians who made the date can be printed; but not the intimate goings-on in Soapy’s the first time Stan Getz was heard. The intent of notes is still a debated subject. We can safely presume that they should tell some interesting highlights of what goes on in the music, points of interest about the musicians, and other reflections about the album that might even induce the transient shopping into even thinking about buying the album. Just how many albums have been sold by the notes would make a worthwhile project for a business-minded young Master Degree candidate.

If you are a reader of much of the literature of jazz, you know that a group of respected critics do not like much of modern music because it does not have the contrapuntal quality of New Orleans and early Chicago jazz. Memories of Dominque, Noone, and Jackson, or of Armstrong, Bechet, and Jones, they say, make the colorings and lines of modern groups seem pretty dull and well out of the tradition that represents the best in jazz. However (without going into the merits of the individual solo and its role in the history of jazz, and why it does make a contribution), a happy circumstance of small groups at the present time are reclaiming some of the group work and feeling that were predominant thirty-five years ago. This is being done somewhat differently, since the collective work is done with great control and is usually written, leaving freedom and the instant feeling for the individual soloist. In stressing the writing and arrangements of the group, do not think for one moment that the categories are that clear cut. Improvisation is often present group-wise, but usually not by intent.

Gerry Mulligan‘s sextet is a good example. With a line of baritone, trombone, trumpet, and tenor, some most effective jazz music is accomplished. But in this recording, only two of these lead voices of the sextet are used so we get a fine example of contrapuntal work which comes from their constant working together in the Mulligan group. And, of course, there is ample appearance for stimulating solo work. The two are Zoot Sims on tenor and Bobby Brookmeyer on trombone. They work along with Hank Jones on piano, Gus Johnson on drums and Wyatt Reuther on bass.

Another aspect of modern jazz which has been somewhat neglected in the old vs. modern argument is the unity of solos. The present-day musician is attuned not only to the mood of the first soloist, as well as the musical structuring of the original music, but takes his lead and line of development from what has been done previously. A fine example of this is the up-tempoed, blues-minored, treatment of Blue Skies. The continuity between Zoot, Bobby and Hank is extraordinary.

You’ll enjoy also the solo work of Zoot on Zoot’s Tune, the rather gutty work they (Bobby and Zoot) do on How Long Has This Been Going On, and the handsome treatment given to Traditional Blues, with a vocal by Zoot. Included is Mr. Moon, Steve Allen’s theme for his TV show, Tonight. This strikes the listener more as a salute of gratitude for the opportunities jazz musicians have had to play on the program than as music that has body to it.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Zoot Sims or Bobby Brookmeyer, the album is a good introduction to them. If you have admired them since their entrance on the jazz scene, then this album is a welcome addition to your collection.