Blowing In From Chicago

CLIFFORD JORDAN & JOHN GILMORE
Blowing In From Chicago

Blue Note 1549
Recorded March 3rd 1957

Side One

1. Status Quo
2. Bo-Till
3. Blue Lights

Side Two

1. Billie's Bounce
2. Evil Eye
3. Everywhere

Oh you lucky, lucky people! Yes, the daily jazz has returned for another stab, and with what a gem! This 1957 LP on the Blue Note 1500 series is unusual for many reasons, featuring as it does two tenors together. Not only that, but the Chicago school (in the case of Jordan and Gilmore) and the New York set (in the shape of a superlative rhythm section - Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Curly Russell) collide in a high energy hard bop spectacular.

It's also one of the very few (the only?) place where you'll hear John Gilmore playing it straight. This would have been recorded near the beginning of his extended tenure with Sun Ra's various groups so is a great chance to hear him just blowing, unencumbered by his bandleader's more unusual compositions.

The music is unreconstructed hard bop, often at a furious pace (see today's audio clip, 'Status Quo', for an example), very much in the style of hard bop innovators like the jazz messengers. In some respects it sounds a little dated for 1957. The sound quality isn't as good as some RVGs either, though perhaps my thin-vinyl 80s repressing is to blame for that. In any case, it's recently had a reissue on Blue Note's ever expanding RVG series, so you can decide for yourselves. See, I told you you were lucky, lucky people!