Jazz Articles about Jackie McLean

Freddie Redd Quartet: The Music from The Connection

by Eddie Becton
December 2, 2005

Curtis Mayfield is often remembered for penning the popular theme “Freddie's Dead." The irony of this title echoes sentiments of out-of-the-loop jazzers who thought iconic Blue Note pianist Freddie Redd made the passage. Redd, the lyrical comrade of Horace Silver and disciple of Bud Powell, is still very much alive and well, performing more regularly in Los Angeles.

The Music from The Connection reflects the turmoil, redemption, and salvation of its characters. The Connection was actually a 1959 play, and ...

Jackie McLean: Destination Out

by Clifford Allen
May 7, 2004

Plagued as we are by historicism, it is not always easy to really hear the music of Charlie Parker as it was played in the clubs or even in studio rehearsals. In some ways, the importance of the artist is more through students and followers than in the firsthand practice of that artist: painter Hans Hofmann is more greatly felt through Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, and so the lineage and importance of Bird is felt in Jackie McLean, ...

Jackie McLean: The Jackie Mac Attack Live

by AAJ Staff
May 5, 2004

Last year, with no fanfare whatsoever, this outstanding recording was reissued by Birdology, the reissue arm of Dreyfus Records. It features one of the greatest alto saxophonists in jazz history, in a 1991 club performance, going for broke, and in the process, making an album for the ages.

McLean starts the proceedings off with a bang, spitting out the riff to “Cyclical," an up-tempo minor blues. He then proceeds to carve out a stunning, in- your-face improvisation, with all his ...

Classic Jackie McLean

by WBGO 88.3FM
March 26, 2004

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean has maintained a prolific career as a performer and composer that has spanned four decades. Here he talks about his latest Blue Note release Fire and Love, career experiences and his steadfast work as a music educator.

Gary Walker: On your latest recording Fire and Love are your son René McLean on tenor, Raymond Williams on trumpet, Steve Davis on trombone, Alan Jay Palmer on piano, and drummer Eric McPherson — all under our ...

Jackie McLean: Jackie's Bag

by Hank Shteamer
May 5, 2003

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's Jackie's Bag is an enjoyable, if not terribly unique, manifestation of vintage Blue Note hard bop: hard-swinging, impeccably performed and recorded in gorgeous, crisp stereo by Rudy Van Gelder. The material on Jackie's Bag comes from two different sessions, each with a different supporting cast (Jan. ‘59, with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums; and Sept. ‘60, with Blue Mitchell on ...

Jackie McLean: Jacknife

by Robert Gilbert
November 13, 2002

In a string of Blue Note albums during the 1960s, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean documented his efforts to incorporate elements of the Avant-garde with his own brand of mainstream jazz. Starting with Let Freedom Ring, McLean embraced modality and wasn’t sheepish to use honks and squeaks in his solos. This 1965 session, newly reissued as part of Blue Note’s Connoisseur series, showcases McLean’s exciting vision of jazz in all its glory.

With a rhythm section of Larry Willis, Larry Ridley ...

Jackie McLean: Rhythm of The Earth

by AAJ Staff
June 25, 2002

The Koch label, which has made a small industry out of re-releasing out-of-print cds from other labels, has apparently seen it fit to rerelease several Verve/Antilles discs that went out of print a few years back. Included among these are the live Bird tribute disc with J-Mac, Johnny Griffin, Duke Jordan and other notables, a best-of disc culling the best from McCoy Tyner’s Big Band output on Verve, and this disc: Jackie McLean’s “Rhythm of the Earth” from 1992. A ...