For dedicated fans ony
J. A. Stewart | NH, USA | 09/16/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This CD, along with the 1952 Inglewood concert with Charlie Parker, makes up Chet Baker's earliest recordings. He shows off his already formidable technical abilities and comes up with some decent ideas, but some of the other players make a bigger impression. These other players include tenor saxophonists Wardell Gray (on "Out of Nowhere" only) and Jack Montrose, altoist Sonny Criss, and pianist Al Haig. Since Wardell Gray didn't live long enough to make as many recordings as the others, his solo is worth hearing, even if it isn't his most memorable. Jack Montrose is an underrated tenor player from the cool school who has some interesting ideas. Sonny Criss, still in the early part of his career, was playing somewhat unimaginatively compared to his Imperial recordings from four years later. He makes up for some of that with great energy and technique (frequent double-timing). Al Haig was the probably the most experienced player here, having made several landmark recordings with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. I found some of his solos to be the most interesting of all. One last mention should be made of harmonica player, Les Thompson, who appears on "Avalon." There probably aren't too many people who can play bebop harmonica and it's a shame there aren't more recordings of him.All the tracks were recorded jam-session style, in a club in 1952. The sound quality is not very good (probably not good enough for the casual listener), but it is certainly good enough to hear the soloists clearly except for a few places. There is one oddity about this package, however. The "+1" in the title refers to the bonus track, a second version of "Sweet Georgia Brown." It's odd because Chet doesn't appear on it at all, though it's on his CD! It was done in 1949 and features among the soloists, Wardell Gray and trumpeter, Howard McGhee. McGhee has a good solo, but I think Wardell's goes on a bit too long; he starts repeating himself in places.All in all, some nice but certainly not essential music; probably something which would only be of interest to really big fans of these artists."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1