Album Reviews

At first you might think "Can these tracks really have come from the same session that produced A Night in Tunisia?" That’s the claim, so you'd be  expecting the same level of raw intensity, the same Van Gelder generated echoey backdrop and the same sense that this was a “cutting session” for the ages.

At first you might think "Can these tracks really have come from the same session that produced A Night in Tunisia?" That’s the claim, so you'd be  expecting the same level of raw intensity, the same Van Gelder generated echoey backdrop and the same sense that this was a “cutting session” for the ages.

Instead, the set opens with the title tune, a beautifully meshed, luxurious take on the Burke-Van Heusen ballad that has the feel of a post-coital interlude, if you pardon the expression, not to mention some superb solos from Bobby Timmons and Lee Morgan.

Side two, Lee Morgan’s “Johnny’s Blue”, is more like what I was expecting: a hard swinging, serpentine blues number with Morgan and Shorter trading solos and then dueting lockstep to close it out. Nice. But I can see why it didn’t make the original album.

Wayne Shorter’s “Noise in the Attic” wakes up side three with a Blakey solo followed by some solo hammering from Shorter that displays his influences and moves beyond them in the process. “Sleeping Dancer Sleep On,” another gorgeous ballad written by Shorter follows with yet another cascading Timmons solo.

The set ends with “Gigantis,” another Shorter composition that really shows the “Giant Steps” influence, building the melodic structure arounda similar, easily recognizable structure. Both Shorter and Morgan take long solos densely packed with good ideas while Blakey lets you know he’s back there driving the bus.

So it’s an interesting collection of worthwhile scraps leftover from the same sessions that produced the A Night in Tunisia  albumand issued six years after the fact. It was well worth releasing this material. It’s hardly “throwaway” quality, but whether or not it’s essential is your choice that will partially depend on how “completist” you are.

Sonically it’s somewhat drier and more intimate than A Night in Tunisia otherwise it has the same mix of pluses and minuses as any good Van Gelder recording.