BLP 4013

Jackie McLean - New Soil

Released - November 1958

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, May 2, 1959
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Jackie McLean, alto sax; Walter Davis Jr., piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Pete La Roca, drums.

tk.6 Greasy
tk.8 Sweet Cakes
tk.10 Davis Cup
tk.13 Minor Apprehension
tk.14 Hip Strut

Session Photos

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

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Hip Strut	Jackie McLean	02/05/1959
Minor Apprehension	Jackie McLean	02/05/1959
Side Two
Greasy	Walter Davis Jr.	02/05/1959
Sweet Cakes	Walter Davis Jr.	02/05/1959
Davis Cup	Walter Davis Jr.	02/05/1959

Liner Notes

IN this country, all professions requiring special talent are overcrowded. Perhaps one of the main reasons for this is that if a thing is done well — acting, writing, boxing, performing a surgical operation. or playing the alto saxophone — it looks so easy that anyone thinks he could do it. The quality that makes it look so easy, the quality that is easiest to detect and hardest to come by, is self-assurance. Jackie McLean has self-assurance now where he has not had it before, and it is to be heard all through this album.

Jackie likes this album. It is customary for musicians, even when they have made an LP likely to be judged “greatest of the year”, to make comments indicating that just here and there, perhaps, are passable sections. But Jackie set out to do some particular things on the record, and feels he has done them.

"New Soil is my idea for a title," he says, “this is a change in my career. My style’s changed, I’ve changed. I’m not like I used to be, so I play different.”

Much of the credit for the record, he feels, should go to Blue Note. “They give you time to rehearse. There’s a good band sound here, because we had time to work things out. A lot of times, you go into a studio, play, and walk out. We spent five weeks on this."

He picked his own musicians for the date. One of them, trumpeter Donald Byrd, has been associated with Jackie since 1953. "We were in George Wallington’s band together then. That was Donald’s first job in New York. He’s playing different now, too. He’s getting better all the time.”

The piano player, Walter Davis, Jr., appears here on Blue Note for the first time, and is a particular choice of Jackie’s. He’s a good piano player, but he writes very well, too. Three of his tunes are on the record, One of them, Greasy, is a cross between ‘rhythm and blues’ and ‘modern jazz’. He came over to the house and played it, and I laughed, and said, “Let’s put that on the record, just like that! That tune’s a lot like Walter. A very pleasant, very humorous guy.”

For Paul Chambers, on bass, Jackie has the greatest respect. “Listen to the way he plays. You’re all right when he’s behind you.”

Drummer Pete La Roca has a solo on Minor Apprehension that is probably the most startling moment on the album. “He’s always wanted to play like that, but nobody encouraged him. He isn’t just playing the tune, you can’t tell exactly where he is in the piece, it’s not that kind of a solo. It’s impressions, really, impressions of the tune.”

Jackie started to talk about other musicians, his influences, and his career. At twenty-seven, having played professionally for more than ten years, he is in the peculiar position of being at the top of his field, while still being young enough to have a feeling that approaches reverence for some of the musicians he considers great. “I try to pattern my style after Miles,” he says. “To play a few notes that mean something, instead of just a lot of notes. Miles can play three notes, and they’re touching. And Sonny Rollins, of course. He’s such a powerful person, it’s hard not to lean on him. Dexter Gordon, from the early days, Dexter’s Deck and things like that. And Lester Young. I remember when I was a kid, my uncle gave me on alto. I didn’t like it, it had a syrupy sound. He played me some records of alto players, and I didn’t like any of them. Then he played some Lester Young, and I said I wanted to play like that. “You’re not supposed to,” he said. “That’s a tenor, and you play alto.” Then I heard a Charlie Parker record, and I said, "That’s on alto!”

He speaks of Parker with particular affection: “He was always very good to me, and told me some things I still remember every day.” And Art Blakey. “I worked with the Jazz Messengers on and off for two and a half years. Art’s the best bandleader in the country.”

At present, Jackie has some very definite plans for himself. “I’ve had some trouble, and I’ve been pretty mixed up, but everything’s fine now. I’ve got a wife and three kids. The oldest boy’s going to be a saxophone player. Alto, of course. I used his sax on this date. I stay around the house, mostly, playing chess — everyone in the house plays except my daughter, Melonae, you can always get a game — practicing and writing. We just got a piano, and I’m learning to play so I can write on it. I’d like to get to the point where I could have a group and play all night and play nothing but my own tunes, and a few other special, very good ones. Like Monk does. Of course, I wouldn’t play my tunes just because they’re mine and I wrote them. I’d like them to say something. Miles, you know, has a better repertoire than anybody, and there’s two pieces of mine, Doctor Jackl and Little Melonoe, that he always keeps in the book and ploys. That’s an honor, when Miles plays your tune.

“I think I have my own style now, my own sound and my own approach. Everybody’s always pointing at some alto player and saying, ‘There’s the new Bird.’ I don’t want that. there was only one Bird, of course, and he was the greatest, but I want to be myself. Maybe someday, when I’m still playing my way, I’ll be heard.”

As can be seen, Jackie McLean does not take his music lightly. That is not to say that there are solemn, cerebral sounds to be heard on this LP, nothing could be further from the truth. Jackie is within what has become known as the “funky” tradition, and there is a lot of hard, happy swinging going on. His own composition, the opening track Hip Strut, which alternates between blues, march and sheer suspension in a way unlike anything you ever heard is one of the most exciting pieces I have heard in a long time. His furiously-paced Minor Apprehension contains much more than Pete la Roca’s amazing solo. The three Walter Davis tunes — the boogie-based Greasy, up-tempoed Sweet Cakes and the lovely rhumba Davis Cup — introduce a composer and pianist sure to become increasingly important.

As for Jackie himself, he is, as he puts it, “waiting patiently” for things to break for him. if things work out as they should, this record should make that wait much shorter.

—JOE GOLDBERG

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