Jackie McLean

Vertigo gathers music Jackie McLean recorded for Blue Note in 1959 and 1963 that nobody heard until 1980, when it came out in the LT series of vault releases. Its core is a February 1963 quintet date with a rhythm section that, a few months later, would be playing for Miles Davis. Two months after that session McLean recorded One Step Beyond, and these tapes were set aside.

Five of the six tracks were cut on 11 February 1963 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. McLean plays alto beside Donald Byrd on trumpet, with Herbie Hancock on piano, Butch Warren on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Reviewing the CD in The Irish Times in 2000, Ray Comiskey pointed out that this was the drummer's recording debut.

The label text speaks of a dizzying range of styles, and it is accurate. McLean's title track is bristling post-bop, Byrd's Dusty Foot leans into a sophisticated funk, and Yams settles into a slow walking blues. Byrd also wrote the opener, Marney. The hard bop centrepiece Formidable is a Walter Davis Jr. tune. It comes from a session of 2 May 1959 at Van Gelder's Hackensack studio, with Byrd, Davis on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Pete La Roca on drums.

Michael Cuscuna found the tapes while going through the Blue Note archive and wrote the notes. He could not establish why the 1963 date was left unissued, though the arrival of One Step Beyond so soon afterwards probably made it look redundant. Byrd and McLean had been recording together since 1955, and Marc Myers of JazzWax heard them take this difficult material with ease and grace. Comiskey heard an album "dominated by McLean's pungent inventiveness" (The Irish Times, 2000).

This stereo Tone Poet edition was produced by Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analogue master tapes. It is pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and packaged in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.