Duke Jordan: Flight to Jordan – 1960

If this isn’t a perfect hard bop record, it comes awfully close. And coming from an artist who is virtually forgotten, it’s all the sweeter.

Duke Jordan was an A-list pianist who was there at the birth of bebop. He was part of Charlie Parker’s classic quintet in 1947. So why don’t we know his name the way we know Thelonious Monk’s or Bud Powell’s?

My guess is Jordan just didn’t have the personality to be a headliner. But that’s just a guess, and it’s based partly on this wonderful 1960 album – his only one as a leader for Blue Note.

On Flight to Jordan, the pianist shines in three ways.

First and foremost, Jordan is a magnificent composer. He wrote all six tunes on the original album, plus one of the two CD bonus tracks. All are spot on. There are four hard bop workouts that stand up to any Jazz Messengers track of the era. There is also one achingly beautiful ballad, one magnificent slow, draggy blues and one standard. For the writing alone, Jordan earns my admiration.

Second, he’s clearly a terrific leader. How do I know? He lets the two horns – tenor Stanley Turrentine and trumpeter Dizzy Reece – steal the spotlight on almost every tune. They are a formidable front line. If you didn’t know it was Jordan’s album, you’d think it was a hornman leading the crew. They are that dominant. Jordan must have had supreme confidence in his own ego to arrange the tunes like that.

Finally, Jordan is a fine pianist – nimble and melodic. I particularly love his soft, bluesy lines on “Deacon Joe,” his exquisite solo on the ballad “Star Brite” and the gentleness of the closing piano trio on “I Should Care.” Yes, it’s a bop record, but it’s the slow stuff that really separates Flight to Jordan from standard Blue Note fare.

I first discovered Jordan as a sideman on Tina Brooks’ True Blue, recorded for Blue Note just a few weeks earlier in 1960. And now that I’ve fallen in love with Flight to Jordan, I plan to check out some more Dizzy Reece.

That’s what I love best about my Blue Note obsession. One terrific record leads to another. My jazz education continues.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Easy to find

Cost: Weirdly, it’s $10 for a new CD on Amazon… but $10.32 for the MP3 files only. Might as well get the CD. (It’s around $4 or $5 used.)

Tina Brooks: True Blue – 1960

I love finding little-known records by almost-unknown artists.

There’s nothing wrong with soaking in the comfortable pool of guys you know oh-so-well. I can listen to Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell all day.But even the greats can wear you out. How many times can you listen to the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” before the na-na-na-na’s get tiresome? For those moments, it’s nice to sample a one-hit wonder.

Tina Brooks is that guy.

Granted, if you’re a Blue Note fan, you may have heard Tina – real name Harold – before. He shows up ever-so-briefly in the late 1950 and early ‘60s on a few good records by Smith, Burrell and Freddie Hubbard. But during his lifetime, the saxman saw only one album released under his own name.

That record, True Blue, is pretty good. It’s one of my go-to records when I’m in the mood for hard bop that’s refreshing but not overly familiar.

As the name implies, the 1960 album is full of bluesy numbers. No surprise, since Brooks sprouted from the same fertile Blue Note bop-blues field that produced fellow saxmen Lou Donaldson, Dexter Gordon and Hank Mobley.

The band is rock solid: Hubbard on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Sam Jones on bass, Art Taylor on drums and Brooks on tenor. Jordan, who is not exactly well-known himself, has a light, melodic touch. A young Freddie Hubbard, only 22 here, sounds like a lot of Blue Note trumpeters of the period, including early Miles Davis and Kenny Durham.

True Blue has a nice mix of tunes. Five of the six are originals written by Brooks, and they’re all pretty terrific. Two are straight-up, smoky blues numbers. The title track has a catchy R&B riff and beautiful horn solos. Two tracks are hard bop romps. Two have Latin feels. There are no ballads, alas.

The two horns, Brooks and Hubbard, are the standouts. They play great together, and when they play separately, they are bold, sassy and, yeah, bluesy.

It’s a shame Tina Brooks never became a big player. He had the chops and the feel. Unfortunately, he also had a fondness for drugs. Like so many jazzmen before and since, the habit killed his career, then it killed him.

In recent years, Brooks has become a cult favorite. I like him a lot. Not much survives on CD under his own name as leader, because his recording career was so short, but this is the starting point. It’s a goodie.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Plenty of used copies on Amazon

Cost: Not one of those $1 or $2 cheapies, but you can get it for around $6 used, $10 new

Kenny Burrell: Blue Lights – 1958

The name on the cover is Kenny Burrell, but Blue Lights isn’t really a Kenny Burrell album. He may be the leader, but the stars are everyone else. This is truly a democratic 1950s jam session.

I came to Blue Lights fresh from Burrell’s Midnight Blue, expecting another laid-back blues guitar vehicle. Not even close. Midnight Blue is where Burrell wound up in 1963. Blue Lights is where he came from in 1958 – a pretty straightforward hard bop romp with seven great solists, most of whom are underappreciated.

The name you know right away is drummer Art Blakey, but this isn’t his star turn. Yes, he takes a few volcanic solos – he wouldn’t be Art Blakey if he didn’t – but mostly he’s the propulsive backbeat to everyone else.

To my ears, trumpeter Louis Smith is the real revelation here. Smith is one of those almost-unknown names from the classic 1950s bop era, a guy who turned out a couple of terrific albums and then, in a flash, disappeared. I loved Smithville, another 1958 Blue Note gem, and I love Smith here, too. He’s every bit as good as Clifford Brown or Lee Morgan, and I found myself looking forward to his solos on every tune.

Tenor saxman Tina Brooks is another almost-unknown who sounds great here. Tina – yes, he’s a he, despite the name – recorded mostly as a sideman for more famous artists. He also put out two of his own excellent Blue Note records in 1958 and 1960. On Blue Lights, he plays alternately smoky and hot. Confusing matters, another tenor, Junior Cook, plays with Brooks on nearly all the cuts. The two tenors are easy to confuse. Both are pretty terrific.

All in all, Blue Lights is a wonderful combination of bluesy tunes – hence the album’s title – and traditional bop fun, including a pretty hot version of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” But it’s definitely a team effort, and listeners looking for a guitar album should turn elsewhere.

Postscript: Check out the album cover by Andy Warhol. Granted, it’s no Campbell’s soup can, but still… Andy Warhol on a jazz record. Who knew?

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Easy to find in three formats: Just Volume 1, just Volume 2, or both together

Cost: Not one of those Blue Note cheapies. About $9 or $10 for the 2-CD set