Milt Jackson - Bean Bags / Bags Opus

As co-leaders of this 1959 session, reissued here in exactly the same shape as the original Bean Bags LP, Coleman Hawkins and Milt Jackson reveal their elegant immersion in slow tempos and blues structures. Coleman Hawkins has been called the first truly great saxophonist, in jazz or otherwise. Milt Jackson, who elected to play for decades in the collective Modern Jazz Quartet rather than pursue a mainly solo career, is certainly the first great modern vibes player in jazz. Jackson learned from Lionel Hampton but developed a harmonic approach to his instrument, which sparkled and resonated as warmly as either tuned drums or a piano. The two players bounce smouldering ideas off each other ("Close Your Eyes") and play to their individual strengths on the two Jackson-penned blues numbers, with Hawkins playing breathy shadows and then leaping registers and Jackson letting the vibes sing with controlled sustain and all the complex art of slowed bebop. The rest of the band is notable, too: bassist Eddie Jones and MJQ drummer Connie Kay work with young guitarist Kenny Burrell and pianist Tommy Flanagan to merge harmony and rhythm wonderfully. --Andrew Bartlett

Price: $17.98