This title contains smooth hard bop spiced up with Scott La Faro’s virtuosic double bass playing. He is one of my absolute favorite double bassists in jazz. Perhaps THE favorite. Even though his life was cut short and he recorded a limited amount of albums he still made a huge mark, and from those few recordings he became one of the greatest double bassists in jazz of all time. So this album is special, just for the mere fact that he plays on it.
The music is lovely and accessible. But it’s that La Faro magic that makes it stand out for me. Harold Land is on this as well and he was a wonderful tenor player, who of course played with Brownie & Roach early in his career. I have much material by him to try and acquire. The other cats are Frank Butler on drums who displays a great style and plays quite smooth and sophisticated. And of course the leader Hawes, a great pianist who influenced many other pianists around him. He plays very lyrical and tasteful on this recording. He recorded plenty for Contemporary and I’ll try and add some more of that stuff to the collection.
This album is highly recommended and a must have if you love La Faro and enjoy smooth and tasteful hard bop.
Cheers!