His first session for Blue Note, with a killer lineup: Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan (just nineteen), Doug Watkins and Art Blakey.
The bluesy Nutville and latinized Minor Move are Brooks originals. He takes a jacking reading of Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight for his own. Star Eyes is borrowed from Bird, showing off Lee Morgan, with a magical, inimitable solo by Sonny Clark.

A five-star hard-bop Blue Note. The CD is in the Connoisseur Edition.

‘Classic vinyl.’

‘Classic vinyl.’

Classic Vinyl Series.

Remarkable 1966 lineup, with James Spaulding, Lee Morgan, Howard Johnson and Kiane Ziwadi in the brass line — the title track reminds you where the Hypnotics are coming from — and McCoy Tyner, besides.

Kicking off with a definitive, thunderous, thrilling version of the title track; with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter.
‘Classic Vinyl’ series.

‘Classic Vinyl’ series.

Meditative, devotional music pondering racism and ancestorship, co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello. Featuring the saxophonist’s usual quartet, plus vocalists for the first time — including Ganavya — who shine.

With Pharoah Sanders, Henry Grimes and Ed Blackwell, in 1966.
‘Sanders’ mix of Coltrane’s yearning long notes, Ayler’s ghostly, fluttering wail, Coleman’s fast, bumpy phrasing and his own manic bagpipe screams certainly separates the faint-hearted from the stayers on the opening Awake Nu. But the conversation between Sanders and Cherry is light, lyrical and engaging on The Thing, and the saxophonist even gets into a stubborn, Sonny Rollins-like repeating Latin vamp on There Is the Bomb. An unflinchingly quirky classic’ (The Guardian).

‘Ndegeocello’s second Blue Note pays homage to the great writer and activist James Baldwin. Her transformative music and collaborative spirit ignites this genre-bending work that is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action. Features frequent collaborators Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller, Abe Rounds, Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni, and Julius Rodriguez, as well as powerful spoken word performances by Jamaican poet and activist Staceyann Chin.’

From 1969, with Harold Land, Stanley Cowell, Reggie Johnson, and Joe Chambers, coolly charting a path all their own, out of the tumultuous decade.