Sam Most Sextet

One of the most difficult feats in modern jazz is the formation of a "new sound", one that will have musical validity as well a commercial acceptance. Every type of instrument, from the harmonica to de harpsichord, has been utilized, and in 1955 the flute is emerging as a favored instrument.

Sam Most is equally at home on the clarinet and flute. His brother, Abe, was for years one of the great jazz clarinetist, with Les Brown and other bands, before settling down to the security of Hollywood studio work. Sam studied at Juillard and played with a variety of orchestras before joining the Mat Matthews Quintet. 

Like many classically-trained younger jazz musicians, Sam Most is primarily concerned with experimental rhythmic and harmonic patterns. He prefers the discipline of arrangements to the usual free-wheeling collective improvisations of the Vanguard jazz sessions. The result is that three of the outstanding composer-arrangers of modern jazz did the writing for this session; Hall Overton, Quincy Jones, and Ronnie Woelmer. *John Hammond (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Skippy

(Woelmer)

2 - Give Me The Single Life

(Ruby, Bloom)

3 - My Old Flame

(Johnson, Coslow)

4 - Just Tutshen

(Most)

Side 2

5 - Blues Junction

(Quincy Jones)

6 - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

(Porter)

7 - Everything Happens To Me

(Adair, Dennis)

8 - Open House

(Woelmer)

Sam Most (clarinet, flute), Marty Flax (baritone sax), Barry Galbraith (guitar), Bill Triglia (piano), Aaron Bell (bass), Bobby Donaldson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 3, 1954.