Kenny Burrell: Introducing Kenny Burrell (Blue Note Tone Poet series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Tone Poet edition is on 180g vinyl in mono, mastered from the original analog tapes and housed in a gatefold jacket. Burrell was 24 when he cut it at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio for Alfred Lion, with a band built around his fellow Detroiters.

This edition

• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

The title isn't modest, and it didn't need to be. Kenny Burrell was born in Detroit, largely taught himself guitar, turned professional at 17 and within a couple of years was playing in Dizzy Gillespie's band alongside a young John Coltrane. Alfred Lion had already recorded him twice in early 1956 and filed those sessions away; on May 29 and 30 he got it right and built an album around him.

The band is as good as rhythm sections got: Tommy Flanagan on piano, a fellow Detroiter who'd soon play on Giant Steps; Paul Chambers, 20 years old and already in Miles Davis's band; bebop drum pioneer Kenny Clarke; and Cuban conga player Candido Camero, whose percussion gives the record its Latin glow. "This Time The Dream's On Me" opens at a gallop, "Fugue 'N Blues" mixes the blues with Bach-style counterpoint and lets Chambers lead early on, "Weaver Of Dreams" slows things down, and "Blues For Skeeter" closes with a bowed bass solo.

Burrell then hands "Rhythmorama" to Candido and Clarke for six and a half minutes of congas against drums, with no guitar at all. Leaving yourself off a track on your own introduction is a confident move, and he was right; Blue Note had him back for years.

Also at Kops: more Kenny Burrell on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0029974-01), a reissue of the 1956 album.