Jackie McLean

A Fickle Sonance is a hard bop quintet date by Jackie McLean, recorded in October 1961 and released by Blue Note at the end of 1962. It is solid, swinging music, yet the dissonant introduction of the title track already hints at the freer direction the alto saxophonist was about to take. The title uses "sonance", an old word for a sound or a tune.

The session took place on October 26, 1961 at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, produced by Alfred Lion and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder. McLean is joined by Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Every member of the band except Higgins contributes a composition. Ira Gitler wrote the liner notes.

The record opens with Five Will Get You Ten, first credited to Clark. It is now believed to be a Thelonious Monk tune called Two Timer, which Monk never recorded. Clark allegedly found the lead sheet in Monk's apartment, and the credit was later shared. Clark's free-flowing piano is at the centre of the performance. McLean contributes Subdued and the title piece, whose dissonant opening gives way to a tough, swinging theme. Clark's Sundu closes the first side. Turrentine's Enitnerrut, his surname spelled backwards, and Warren's Lost close the second.

AllMusic's Al Campbell heard playing that "remained in a swinging blues-oriented style", with no hint of where McLean was heading. Others hear more than a hint in the title track. With his next records, starting with Let Freedom Ring in 1962, McLean moved into avant-garde territory. The cover, with Reid Miles' dramatic cropping of a Francis Wolff photograph of McLean, is among the label's most striking.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.