George Russell - New York, New York - 1959

Its early 1959, and New York is at it's pinnacle as a jazz Mecca. Miles is recording "Kind of Blue", Trane is doing "Giant Steps", Bill Evans is the hot new piano player. The uncompromising George Russell (he of the musical treatise, "The Lydian Chromatic Concept") assembles top-notch musicians like John Coltrane, Max Roach, Phil Woods, Benny Golson, Bob Brookmeyer, Milt Hinton, Bill Evans, Art Farmer – all in the same band. And with that late-fifties cool narration of Jon Hendricks too!. Even with SOME familiar standards, plus his own compositions, Russell takes it "outside" sometimes, approaching the music adventurously and unpredicatably ,stretching harmonic structures and tempos, yet somehow it all fits together. Evans, Trane, Max and Phil Woods make near-perfect solo statements and the band swings. All in all, it's not your typical big band date from that era, but rather tightly-knit ensemble sessions of stellar players creating some music that if not ahead of its time, may at least be said to be underrated. Review from Amazon

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