Splendid album here with the highly underrated tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks. This is, I guess, considered a "holy grail". Which to me means it has to be musical-wise outstanding, very rare, highly priced and very sought after. This record has all of those attributes. All the tunes are a pleasure to listen to, and the album has a good mix of tunes which makes it interesting. An absolutely outstanding ensemble work their magic on this, and they consist of Tina Brooks on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Sam Jones on double bass and Art Taylor on drums. Very difficult to pick favorite tunes, as they are all so good, but my picks for the moment are "Good Old Soul" and "Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You".
Tina Brooks was a very gifted musician who made a few very nice recordings during a far too brief career, which was cut short by heroin dependency, gradually deteriorating health and ultimately death, caused by liver failure at age 42. I'm just starting to get into this magnificent artists work, and "True Blue" is a nice way to start. Freddie Hubbard is another artist which I'm really getting into at the moment, though I have listened to him before. But now, I hold him in very high regard and I'm planning to buy a lot more stuff with him. What a trumpeter. A virtuoso. Clean, brilliant sound and a lot of amazing technical abilities. The other cats are top notch as well.
There are a lot of albums in the early Blue Note 4000 series which are very, very good and superbly recorded. The sound quality is outstanding. The copy I have is very nice, with a VG++ cover and a NM record. It's the first catch of 2016, and a pretty sweet way to start another year full of collecting rare jazz vinyl. I'm extremely happy to have been able to add this masterpiece to the collection. I'm aiming to secure some more pieces from the 4000 series very soon.
If you have the chance to buy an original pressing of this baby, don't hesitate for one second. It'll be worth every penny spent and a joy to slide off the shelf and put on the turntable and listen to. If you don't have it and if you're not able to purchase a 1st pressing, buy another version as soon as possible. This album should be on the shelf of every jazz lover.
It's cold and frosty here in Stockholm tonight, about -10°C. But the warmth of playing a few jazz tunes and looking at the collection makes it quite cozy.
I'll be back soon with another post, so stay tuned and have a good day/night. Cheers!