Search - Jackie Mclean :: Best of Jackie Mclean

Deserving of a better fate

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 03/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Surprisingly, this release from late 2004 is already out of print. Perhaps the market is so saturated with unwanted disks that milk cartons have longer expiration dates. Jackie McLean was a prolific if not major recording artist who, above all, had an immediately identifiable sweet-sour sound. His true-blue fans would have no use for a miscellaneous collection such as this, and casual fans are probably few for this particular altoist.



Nevertheless, this anthology represents vintage McLean from one of jazz' most fertile periods--the mid-fifties. Though I'm not the biggest fan of McLean's raw sounds, on this disk they're quite palatable for several reasons, among them the familiar repertory, the presence of two supreme bass players (Doug Watkins and Paul Chambers) and three always welcome horn players (Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd and Bill Hardman). Jackie's exchanges with the obscure altoist John Jenkins are also high points."