Jackie McLean, who was in his thirties and signed to Blue Word Information throughout the first half of the Sixties, had been straddling the divide between exhausting bop – the favored blues and gospel-inflected jazz forex of the Fifties – and a extra avant-garde mode of musical expression.
In 1964, you heard McLean exploring the latter, with the discharge of essentially the most daring album of his profession, Vacation spot…Out!, a set of free-thinking experimental items. The album not solely positioned McLean firmly within the vanguard of post-bop jazz alongside Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and John Coltrane but additionally confirmed how far he had traveled since he first burst of the jazz scene in 1950 as a disciple of bebop saxophonist, Charlie Parker.
These anticipating McLean to push the jazz envelope even additional, nevertheless, would have been stunned by how completely different 1965’s It’s Time! sounded. Whereas Vacation spot…Out! discovered McLean hurtling towards full-blown free jazz, It’s Time! is the sound of him taking two steps again, to a spot of relative security. It wasn’t that McLean lacked the braveness to drive ahead. As a substitute, because the saxophonist instructed author Nat Hentoff in 1965: “I never want to go ‘outside’ for too long a time without coming back ‘inside’ again.”
It’s Time! discovered McLean returning to the driving swing rhythms and bluesy cadences of exhausting bop, nevertheless it definitely wasn’t a conservative session. That’s right down to the gamers surrounding him, two of the brightest younger abilities in fashionable jazz: Herbie Hancock and Charles Tolliver.
25-year-old Hancock – a member of the trailblazing Miles Davis Quintet and in addition making waves as a solo artist at Blue Word – provided piano taking part in of the very best high quality as each a soloist and accompanist. Tolliver, a 22-year-old trumpeter from Florida, was making his recording debut on It’s Time! and although he was inexperienced, McLean trusted in his younger apprentice sufficient to function three of his songs on the session. Finishing McLean’s lineup was an skilled rhythm part comprising 30-year-old bassist Cecil McBee and ace drummer Roy Haynes, then one thing of a veteran at 40 however who was a flexible and forward-thinking musician.
McLean’s quintet bursts out of the blocks with the opening reduce, the Tolliver-penned “Cancellation.” It’s a driving piece of superior exhausting bop distinguished by a fanfare-like harmonized horn theme performed over stop-time rhythms firstly and finish of the piece. McLean takes the primary solo, his acrid tone contrasting with the liquid fluidity of the rhythm observe. Tolliver follows with a discursive passage of improv that betrays the affect of free jazz whereas Hancock’s solo delves into summary reflection.
The following observe, McLean’s “Das’ Dat,” is extra orthodox: an archetypal slice of exhausting bop emphasizing the music’s blues roots. The album’s title track, one other McLean tune, is extra progressive and displays the affect of modal jazz. Hear for Haynes’ drum solo, which highlights the Boston-born musician’s nuanced, polyrhythmic method to his instrument. The album’s nearer, “Truth,” is the set’s solely ballad and its presence affords a welcome respite following the vigorousness of the earlier 5 songs. Its composer, Tolliver, invests the tune’s solo trumpet theme with deeply-felt emotion whereas Hancock, McBee, and Haynes present simpatico however understated help.
Although housed in an unforgettable Reed Miles-designed cowl that emphasised the urgency of the album’s title, It’s Time! didn’t appeal to as a lot consideration as a few of McLean’s different data from the identical period. Given the good thing about hindsight, nevertheless, the album affords a vivid aural snapshot of certainly one of jazz’s most interesting alto saxophonists throughout a captivating transitional interval in his profession.
