Blue Note Evolution

I had Grachan's other solo album Some Other Stuff and was in awe.  That is how it started for me.  He was unique in the Blue Note world because he was a trombone player for one and I don't think there was anyone else at the time playing for Blue Note that was a trombone player.  He had a great line-up on his first and now has a great one on this album Evolution. The group included Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Bobby Hutchinson, Tony Williams and Bob Crenshaw.

The sense of our American history was being foreshadowed by it's recording date too.  Recorded on November 21st 1963 made this album even more interesting.  The music certainly interesting for it's time.  It showed a change in what Jazz was and what Jazz was going to be.

As a huge collector of Jazz and Blue Note recordings this was a time that showed the music was the most adventurous.  Blue Note had many Avant-Garde releases that stood the test of what Impulse and ESP were doing. From the years 1963-1967 this was Blue Note's peak.  I can name a few artists like, Don Cherry, Andrew Hill, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and countless others that stretched Jazz to a whole new world.  This is the era I dig the most.  It's challenging to the brain and to music minded listener as well.

When I heard this on a Jazz station where I live during a late night 3AM drive home I finally understood that there was reasons for Out to Lunch or Point of Departure or even Symphony for Improvisors. This begs it for a listen and you defiantly get rewarded every time you listen to it.  "The four originals are all extended, multi-sectioned works (the shortest is around eight minutes), all quite ambitious, and all terrifically moody; much of the album sounds sinister and foreboding, and even the brighter material has a twisted, surreal fun-house undercurrent." *AMG  I could not say it better myself.  Worth finding if you can get it.  If you find it on LP though I will take it off your hand with gleefulness and joy because it's what Jazz should be challenging and engaging.