Backgrounder: Freddie Redd's The Connection

In 1960, pianist Freddie Redd composed and recorded The Music From the Connection. The music was originally composed for Jack Gelber's 1959 New York play The Connection, about jazz musicians and drug addiction. Redd's music was performed on stage by Redd (p), Jackie McLean (as), Michael Mattos (b) and Larry Ritchie (d). The album for Blue Note is a tour de force not only for Redd's roiling jazz-gospel piano but for McLean's aching solos.

Here's The Music From the Connection without interruption by ads (scroll down).