Backgrounder: Tina Brooks, 'Back to the Tracks'

Tina wasn't his real name. When Harold Brooks was young, he was nicknamed Teeny, which at some point wound up as Teena and then Tina. Between 1958 and 1961, the tenor saxophonist recorded five hard bop albums for Blue Note as a leader. There were plenty of Blue Note sideman dates as well.

Back to the Tracks was recorded in September and October 1960 but not released until 1998, when producer Michael Cuscuna found the tapes in the Blue Note archives and issued them in the CD era. Blue Note co-founder Alfred Lion commonly recorded way more than he could issue, for whatever reason. Perhaps he wanted the label's pipeline full at all times in case things slowed. Or perhaps he heard a flaw in the recording that is indistinguishable to us. Or perhaps the album was held because the personnel wasn't consistent. Fortunately, Michael found this one along with many, many others by other artists that were released until many years after their death.

The personnel on Back to the Tracks was Tina Brooks (ts), Blue Mitchell (tp), Kenny Drew (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Art Taylor (d). Jackie McLean (as) appears on just one track—Street Singer. The songs were Brooks's Back to the Tracks, Street Singer and The Blues and I, plus the standards For Heaven's Sake and The Ruby and the Pearl.

Here's the complete Back to the Tracks, without ad interruption...