BLP 4106

Jackie McLean - Let Freedom Ring

Released - April 1963

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 19, 1962
Jackie McLean, alto sax; Walter Davis Jr., piano; Herbie Lewis, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

tk.6 Melody For Melonae
tk.8 I'll Keep Loving You
tk.12 Rene
tk.13 Omega

Session Photos

Jackie McLean at rehearsal

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Melody for Melonae	Jackie McLean	19 March 1962
I'll Keep Loving You	Bud Powell	19 March 1962
Side Two
Rene	Jackie McLean	19 March 1962
Omega	Jackie McLean	19 March 1962

Liner Notes

THERE are many reasons for which I chose to write the notes for this album. I want to give my personal opinion on the new concept in jazz today. I would also like to give a rundown on the material used, as well as the personnel.

When Monk, Bird, Diz and Max made their appearance on the jazz scene, a new concept was born. The first steps towards freedom in improvisation were taken. The New Breed, on the jazz scene, are searching for new ways of expressing themselves. Many have cast aside the old and much overused chord progressions: they are scorching for new foundations compositionwise. We find scales and modes more outstanding in solos. The extended form (first introduced to me by Charlie Mingus) is but another way of composing and blowing.

When a musician reaches a certain point, he is no longer satisfied with merely copying someone else. He begins to look for his own way of expression. For example, I have always felt that Charlie Parker used a crossbreed of Don Byas, Lester Young and Buster Smith as a basis for a style that later became his own, a very original style. Some of my early influences were Lester Young, Dexter Gordon. Bud Powell, Monk and, of course, Bird. Later Sonny Rollins, Andy Kirk Jr. and Miles helped form my concept.

I feel that emotion has taken an important step in expression on the horn. Emotion has always been present, but today it has a new importance. Towards the end of Lady Day's career, her voice was just a shadow of what it had been, yet she still put a song over; her singing voice was gone, leaving emotion her only tool of expression.

Getting away from the conventional and much overused chord changes was my personal dilemma. Until recently this was the reason why many things I composed in 1955 left me helpless when it came to a basis for improvisation, for example, Quadrangle and A Fickle Sonance. Both of these tunes were just recently recorded. I used I Got Rhythm for the solo section in Quadrangle. These changes do not fit the personality of the tune at all. Today when I play Quadrangle, I use sections of scales and modes. I try to write each thing with its own personality. I choose the outstanding notes of the composition and build a scale or a motif to the feeling of the tune. Today I am going through a big change compositionwise, and in improvising. Ornette Coleman has made me stop and think. He has stood up under much criticism, yet he never gives up his cause, freedom of expression. The search is on.

I hold a deep respect for two great trumpet players, Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis. Ironically, their jazz histories are very similar; yet they have two completely different ways of expression. They worked in the some big bands in the '40s (Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie). Miles worked With Charlie Parker during some of Bird's most exciting years. When Miles left, Kenny took his place next to the master. Today we find Kenny and Miles still advancing the cause. Their approach is different but their destination is the same.

I received my first saxophone on my fifteenth birthday, a gift from my Mom. Two years later I met Bud Powell. It was Bud who gave me what musical heart and pride I possess. Through Bud I met Miles and Kenny. In my early years I wanted to sound like Bird. He was a master saxophonist and a great man.

Miles gave me my first professional break. I was nineteen when I entered the House of Davis. I listen closely to Dave. He always chooses iust the right notes in a change. Miles can play three notes and say as much as someone playing thirty. Sonny Rollins was with the band; so between the two, my concept broadened. My sound began to change. At this point I joined Mingus. Charlie would always say, "Jackie, you have your own sound. Now Why don't you look for your own ideas." Today I con appreciate this bit of priceless advice. I began to form my own way of expression with Mingus.

When I left "The Ming", I joined the master swinger, Art Blakey. I spent two and a half years With the Messengers, happy years. Art also preached originality to me.

I am proud to say that my musical schooling has been at the universities of Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and, of course, Bird. Many of my early days in jazz were spent at Monk's house. Monk has been a dear friend of mine for many years.

Jazz is going through a big change, and the listener or fan, or what have you, should listen With an open mind. They should use a mental telescope to bring into view the explorers who have taken one step beyond, explorers such as Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Ornette and, of course, Duke Ellington. I don't have enough space to name them all.

Klook, Max Roach, Art 81akey, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe, Elvin Jones and Arthur Taylor. These are the percussionists who have made a lyrical instrument of the drum.

The musicians I chose for this date are: Billy Higgins on drums; Billy, who is from Los Angeles, came to New York with Ornette Coleman. I sure dig the groove Billy gets. Herbie Lewis, on bass, was born in Pasadena, California on February 17, 1941. Herbie, Who is self-taught, came to New York with Les McCann and is currently working with the Jazztet. He can sure swing. On piano is Walter Davis from New Jersey. Walter has played with Max Roach's and Dizzy's bonds, to name a few. Everybody knows "Humphrey."

The material on this date is mostly original. Melody For Melonae is dedicated to my little girl, six years of age. It has three different moods, first the melody, then it moves a bright Bb minor mode as a basis for solos. Each solo ends with a ballad section. I'll Keep loving You, composed by Bud Powell, is a beautiful ballad that reveals the depth of Bud's emotions. René is a blues written for my son Who is studying the alto. I try to get away from the usual 12 bar blues figure. In other words, I take the roundabout way only to end up with the blues in Bb. Finally Omega which means the end. I wrote this for my mother. Her name happens to be Alpha Omega McLean. The tune is in two sections. The outside is built on a F# major mode and is free of tempo, to a degree. The second section swings along with a happy feeling.

I want to thank Walter Davis, Billy Higgins and Herbie Lewis for their support. I give them "A" for effort and for performance. The new breed has inspired me all over again. The search is on. Let freedom ring.

— JACKIE McLEAN

Cover Design by REID MILES
Cover Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Recording RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT LET FREEDOM RING

In a sense, Blue Note got two alto saxophonists when it signed Jackie McLean to a contract late in 1958. One was a master of the bebop vernacular who had helped usher in the more caustic and percussion-driven hard-bop era, and who can be heard to best advantage on Freddie Redd's 1960 masterpiece Music From "The Connection". The second was a more restless, exploratory soul attuned to where contemporaries such as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were headed, who sought his own path into the new music. This renegade side of McLean's personality is well described in the memorable liner notes the saxophonist wrote for the original release of the present album, and could be heard in embryo as early as his first date as a leader for the label, when the version of "Quadrangle" that McLean describes was recorded. (That performance can be heard on Jackie's Bag, which is also available in the RVG Series.)

There were other signs of transition on subsequent Blue Note recordings, including the title tracks from the 1961 sessions Bluesnik and A Fickle Sonance; and there were even instances after Let Freedom Ring was taped (including a quintet session with Kenny Dorham and Sonny Clark done later in 1962) in which McLean reverted to his more established instrumental persona. Yet the present album announced that he had found the means to a more complete and contemporary means of expression, achieved primarily through the use of the modal structures that Miles Davis had popularized through his Kind Of Blue recording. Together with supporting players who shared both McLean's modernist foundation and trademark passion, the saxophonist created a manifesto to growth through evolution that is one of the great albums in Blue Note history.

"Melody For Melonae," like McLean's earlier "Little Melonae" dedicated to his daughter, was also recorded by the saxophonist a month after this version on the Kenny Dorham United Artists Jazz album Matador. There the composition bore the title "Melanie" and employed a faster tempo for the improvised sections. Here the groove is more stable and sustains the mysterious aura of the supporting vamp more effectively. McLean introduces some provocative upper-register screams for the first time here, and executes them with a precision of shading and pitch that should dispel any notions of random squealing. He also takes great care in developing the melodic material in his solo, pausing in spots to regenerate new ideas in a manner that suggests the influence of Ornette Coleman. Former Coleman drummer Billy Higgins sets up a commentary that is inseparable from the soloist and invaluable to the overall success of this track, not to mention the entire date. McLean stops playing at one point during the alto solo to allow the drums to complete an idea. The voicing and propulsion of Walter Davis's piano, and his ability to flow in and out of tempo, are also exemplary.

Davis, one of the young pianists personally touched by Bud Powell during the 1950s, shines again on Powell's beautiful "I'll Keep Loving You." It was a masterstroke on McLean's part to include this overlooked ballad (which Powell recorded for Norman Granz in a 1949 solo version) and to retain the rubato feeling of the original. The rhythm section helps to achieve a unity of mood as the tempo shifts and McLean varies the intensity of his lead. Those who pigeonhole the leader as an "angry" alto should check out the achingly tender coda.

The final two compositions are both related to the blues; but while "Rene" employs the standard twelve-bar structure and harmonic sequence once the solos commence, "Omega" abstracts the form to arrive at a three-part modal structure. Both compositions inspire superb performances, with the parade of tart blues licks in the former recalling Andre Hodeir's description of Thelonious Monk's treatment of pop songs as an "acid bath."

The still-controversial McLean sound was never more acidic than on Let Freedom Ring. "Whenever I get with Hank Jones and ask him to tune me up, he'll always hit B flat rather than A," McLean joked while discussing his tone in 1997, then continued in a more serious vein. "Some people would prefer music to be a kingdom, with someone at the helm defining what to do; but jazz is the perfect example of democracy. You could line me up with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Gary Bartz and Kenny Garrett, tell us all to hit C, and get five different spins on the same note. We all have our own perceptions. My life has been sweet and sour, bittersweet, and I'm interpreting my experience. I'm a sugar-free saxophonist."

His interpretations were never keener than on these classic performances.

- Bob Blumenthal, 2003