Album Reviews

Don’t let the October 16^th 1956 mono recording date fool you: this Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet session was recorded in Los Angeles, probably at legendary Radio Recorders, and the sound will knock you down.

Don’t let the October 16^th 1956 mono recording date fool you: this Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet session was recorded in Los Angeles, probably at legendary Radio Recorders, and the sound will knock you down.

If the opener “Las Vegas Blues” doesn’t get you, the second tune, the familiar “Harlem Nocturne” will! The sonic mood is strictly fish net stockings “film noir.” When Jacquet reaches down to the lower limits of his tenor on “…Nocturne” you’ll feel as if the walls of your listening room just might crumble.

The arrangements for the sextet featuring Jacquet, Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Jimmy Jones on piano, Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar and “Papa” Jo Jones on drums, leave plenty of open space for everyone to be heard and for the soloists to step forward and really be heard. 

Ellis in particular can be heard to great advantage, with the visceral texture of his finger plucks rendered remarkably well. But really, every instrument sounds great, bathed in a well-crafted reverb that give them a slightly exaggerated size, body and weight without lessening presence and physical solidity. You are guaranteed to love both the music and the sound here.

Jacquet’s playing presages rock’n’roll sax and he veers between bluesy/jazz and some harder edged play among the six, medium length tunes, the short count necessitated by the 10” format on which this was originally released.

The 33 1/3 Speakers Corner issue pressed at Pallas sounds mighty fine, probably cut from a copy of the master, but the Analogue Productions double 45 cut from the master by George Marino at Sterling Sound is simply better in every way: it’s richer, more supple, more dimensional, more spacious, more detailed—you name the sonic parameter and it wins. It’s also more expensive ($50 versus $35), requires you to get up twice as often to hear the entire, not very long record. Pressing quality on both is superb. QRP has quickly reached the top pressing plant echelon where Pallas has been for years.

Your choice of course, but do yourself a favor and choose one. This is a keeper classic that will please over the long haul. It’s been doing so since 1956 so I can’t see why it should stop doing so any time soon!

As this is written, the Analogue Productions version has yet to be released to the public. This review is based upon an early test pressing.