Five-Star Collection... Bud Powell

 ...and here we go again

At the end of last year, the story was deliberately left with The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 1 — the first five-star album in Down Beat’s modern jazz reviews. It was a natural place to pause, with a promise implied rather than stated: the sequence would resume where it inevitably led. Returning now, Outlet Jazz picks up exactly at that point, with The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 2, an album that also received the magazine’s highest rating and confirmed that the earlier accolade had been no isolated judgment.

The fact that Bud Powell was the first musician to achieve the highest rating was no small detail.His emergence as a modern pianist — capable of reshaping the bebop language from the keyboard — marked a clear before and after for critics and musicians alike. That initial five-star rating did more than celebrate virtuosity; it acknowledged, in real time, the arrival of a defining voice in mid-twentieth-century jazz.

Between 1949 and 1955, Bud Powell recorded three albums that not only defined his career but also shaped the course of modern jazz piano: The Amazing Bud Powell and The Artistry of Bud Powell. The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 (Blue Note, 1949–51) and The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1953) document, with remarkable clarity, the evolution of an artist who brought the language of bebop to the keyboard with unprecedented precision and intensity. The first, recorded for Alfred Lion with musicians such as Fats Navarro, Sonny Rollins, and Max Roach, displays Powell’s genius in trio, quintet, and solo formats, establishing a model that would influence an entire generation. The second volume, more introspective and focused, reveals a less explosive but more refined Powell, asserting his voice amid the personal difficulties already beginning to surround him.

Finally, The Artistry of Bud Powell (Norgran, 1954), produced by Norman Granz, offers a different perspective on the pianist. Recorded in a more controlled setting and with a polished sound, it finds Powell joined by George Duvivier, Percy Heath, and Art Taylor, revisiting standards and original compositions with a serenity that contrasts with the urgency of his Blue Note sessions. Heard together, these recordings trace Bud Powell’s creative summit: the passage from the fire of bebop to a more contained — yet no less intense — maturity, and the sound world of one of the most decisive artists of the twentieth century.

When Down Beat reviewed The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 2, it did more than close the chapter opened by the first volume. The magazine used the occasion to place Powell’s recent work in a broader context, bringing The Artistry of Bud Powell into the same critical frame. Following that logic, Outlet Jazz resumes its work by addressing both albums together.

Here is how Down Beat reviewed the two albums that concern us today — The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 2 and The Artistry of Bud Powell:

Two absorbing journeys (recorded this June) into the musically astonishing and troubled mind of Bud Powell. The first, made for Norman Granz, has Arthur Taylor on drums with George Duvivier and Percy Heath splitting the bass assignment. On the five standards, Bud is in an unusually gentle, reflectively passionate mood. Buttercup is a characteristically angular, intensely rhythmic original that is almost sunny in its casualness. Fantasy is more angular, more intense. (Norgran LP MG N-23)

The Blue Note program is more diversified. On this set, issued by Alfred Lion with the permission of Norman Granz, Bud was backed in August, 1953, by Taylor and the amazing Duvivier (amazing not only in his too long underrated bass artistry but in his ability to communicate so fully with Bud, no matter how rapidly and unpredictably the latter's musical mind races). Bud involves himself with Autumn and Polka Dots here with much the same measured passion as in the Granz album.

On the other bands (but one) he is the familiarly unfamiliar Bud Powell at middle and uptempo originals and in reappraisals of standard lines. The one exception is Enclosure, the best and most stimulatingly organized Bud original yet recorded and one that shows in small area the potential of this musician for significant composition as well as influential interpretation. It is to be hoped for himself and for music that Bud soon will come back to health. Good, helpful notes for the Blue Note LP by Leonard Feather. The Blue Note is better recorded and has the better cover. Both sets are worth repeated listening. (Blue Note LP BLP 5041). 

*Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, November 17, 1954 [5 stars]*

Bud Powell

The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 2

Between these covers lies the harvest of a journey through the mind of Bud Powell. It is a journey in which beauty and darkness, pleasure and sorrow are to be gleaned along the way; for this mind is a strange land, endowed with a glow of genius yet beset by illness and deprivation.

Bud Powell's career has been an erratic one, gregarious months along 52nd Street alternating with lonely months in the hospital. For all the inconsistency of his march to fame, he has managed to earn the unanimous admiration of his contemporaries and to forge an ineradicable place for himself in the international hall of jazz fame.

A year ago, on his return from a year's absence, he was approached by Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records to make his first return to the recording studios since his illness. But at that time he was enjoying two weeks' vacation between engagements at Birdland.

The session that resulted was no hasty, impromptu venture. It was the product of many meetings between Lion, Powell and Duvivier and Taylor. Each tune was selected to show a certain aspect of Bud's style, and the entire set offers a comprehensive picture of this extraordinary talent. (...)

If you know Bud Powell only by repute, or through the media of radio and night clubs, this LP is the definitive set to represent him in your collection. If you already have his earlier recordings, you will probably agree with me that in this group of performances Bud Powell is at his peak. Let us hope that today, at the age of 30, he may have a future studded with many more such achievements. *Leonard Feather (from the liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Reets And I

(Benny Harris)

2 - Autumn In New York

(Vernon Duke)

3 - I Want To Be Happy

(Vincent Youmans)

4 - Sure Thing

(Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin)

Side 2

5 - Glass Enclosure

(Bud Powell)

6 - Collard Greens And Black-Eye Peas

(Oscar Pettiford)

7 - Polka Dots And Moonbeams

(Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen)

8 - Audrey

(Bud Powell)

Bud Powell (piano), George Duvivier (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City, August 14, 1953

✳✳✳

Bud Powell

The Artistry Of Bud Powell

I've tried, in the past album brochures which I have written about Bud Powell, to describe carefully the man's playing with the man himself, because the two parts are inseparable and each is the key to the other’s personality.

I know of no other musician on the jazz scene today who is as frustrated as Bud Powell. He has so much to say and he tries so hard to say it that from time to time his efforts are too much for his body and his mind. I started to say and his spirit but I find that once seated at the piano his spirit is unquenchable. Bud loves his music and, having a natural talent for creation, something wonderful usually comes out of this marriage of creation and love. But there are too the frustrated edges which occasionally creep in, and in saying this I don't mean to derogate Bud but rather to describe him as accurately as I can, and in many ways this frustration at the edges is a kind of comment that Bud has to make about life and about his music, just as they, in turn, explain Bud.

This date was done with a great deal of preparation and Bud made it a point to practice his numbers as often and as thoroughly as he could so that he would be completely familiar with them and I think this comes through genuinely and sincerely on the sides. Bud chose all the tunes himself, and among them are the great standards, "Moonlight In Vermont", "Spring is Here" and "My Funny Valentine", and also a perfectly delightful original composition Bud made, entitled "Buttercup". The date was done in two sections and on one date we used George Duvivier on bass and on the other Percy Heath. The drummer on both dates was Art Taylor. The respect that these men have for Bud is evident, as is their own contribution on the date.

This, then, is more of the creative Bud Powell. *Norman Granz (from the liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Moonlight In Vermont

(Karl Suessdorf, John Blackburn)

2 - Time Was

(Miguel Prado, Gabriel Luna, Bob Russell)

3 - Spring Is Here

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

Side 2

4 - Buttercup

(Bud Powell)

5 - Fantasy In Blue

(Bud Powell)

6 - It Never Entered My Mind

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

7 - My Funny Valentine

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

Bud Powell (piano); George Duvivier [#1, #3, #4, 5],

Percy Heath [#2, #6, #7] (basses), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded at Fine Sound Studio, New York City,

June 2 [#1, #3, #4, 5] and June 4 [#2, #6, #7], 1954

✳✳✳

For those who prefer digital versions, each file includes the corresponding CD which, as usual, also adds bonus tracks and alternate takes not present on the original LPs.

The compact disc Bud Powell's Moods appears here thanks to the generosity of my dear friend Melanchthon.

Five-Star Collection... The Down Beat Five-Star History (Part III)

After exploring both the symbolic ratings of 1946 and the numerical approach introduced in 1951, we now arrive at the reform that would define Down Beat for generations of readers.

This final part revisits the introduction of the magazine's most enduring metric — its hallmark five-star scale.

✤ 1952 ✤

The Star System

Finally, in the May 21, 1952 issue, Down Beat introduced the five-star system — the format that would come to define the magazine's identity for decades. By then, the review department was organized into three distinct sections: Popular, Jazz, and Rhythm & Blues, each with its own criteria and editorial approach.

The new system formalized a crucial distinction. Popular and Rhythm & Blues releases were to be judged by their broad general appeal, while Jazz records — reflecting the magazine's core mission — were evaluated strictly on their musical merit. The editors also devised an additional symbol for popular and R&B items whose musical interest rose above their commercial category.

Here is how Down Beat announced the change:

"Records in the popular and rhythm-and-blues sections are reviewed and rated in terms of broad general appeal. Records in the jazz section are reviewed and rated in terms of their musical merit.

Records in the popular and rhythm-and-blues sections of interest from the musical standpint are marked with a sharp (#), or, if exceptionally interesting, a double sharp (##)".

Ratings:

★★★★★ Excellent (Masterpiece [today])

★★★★ Very Good (Excellent [today])

★★★ Good

★★ Fair

★ Poor

With this clear and durable format — and with its three-tiered review structure firmly in place — Down Beat finally arrived at the rating system that would carry it through the 10-inch and 12-inch LP eras, the CD market, the reissue boom, and well into the digital age.

What was the first Jazz album reviewed that achieved the highest score?

The Amazing Bud Powell!

Bud Powell

The Amazing Bud Powell

Two piano solo sides, four trios and two numbers by a quintet (Fats Navarro, Sonny Rollins and rhythm) are here combined into an LP, justifiably entitled "The Amazing Bud Powell".

Cynics who are inclined to sneer at bop and belittle its accomplishments are hereby advised to spend a few hours browsing over this disc. Congratulations to Blue Note's Alfred Lion for catching Bud at his fabulous best, and to the artist, name of Bacon, who conjured up that brilliant likeness of Bud for the cover. (Blue Note LP 5003.) *(Down Beat, Chicago, May 21, 1954 [5 stars])*

Powell's place in the jazz galaxy can hardly be overstated. He was a genius, the Charlie Parker of piano, and a brilliant composer. He was a contemporary (and friend) of Thelonious Monk, but declared that his greatest influence on piano was Art Tatum. He had a right hand that was described as lightning fast, a dazzlingly melodic way of improvising, and a rhythmic complexity that nonetheless flowed naturally. In the course of his career, Powell’s playing underwent style changes and, near the end, as his health went downhill, there was sometimes a certain raggedness about it — but it was always right.

The Amazing Bud Powell is the product of two separate recording sessions, one of a quintet on August 9, 1949, the other of a trio on May 1, 1951. Originally released on the Blue Note label in 10-inch LP form, the album, not surprisingly, has been re-released a number of times. 

Along with Powell on the 1949 date are the pioneering bop trumpeter Fats Navarro, a 20-year-old Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, bassist Tommy Potter, and drummer Roy Haynes. The trio date in 1951 included bassist Curley Russell and drummer Max Roach.

As the leader on both the recording dates, Powell's playing is naturally showcased. But what a treat to hear Fats Navarro — a bebop icon who died way too young — along with Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes, both of whom are still alive, still playing, and whose evolving approaches to the music we’ve been able to witness over all these years. Not to mention Max Roach, who many consider to have been the greatest drummer in jazz history.

The original Powell compositions recorded here are bebop classics, and wonderful to hear. But the album also more than does justice to compositions by Bird, Dizzy and Monk as well as some hand-picked gems from the Great American Songbook.

I'm hardly the first to note that this is bop at its highest level. And if you have any real interest in jazz, this album belongs in your collection. Be warned, though: Bud Powell can be addictive. ("Betcha can’t hear just one!"). *Terry MacDonald (seacoastjazz.org)*

Side 1

1 - Un Poco Loco

(Bud Powell)

2 - Over The Rainbow

(E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Harold Arlen)

3 - Ornithology

(Bennie Harris)

4 - Wail

(Bud Powell)

Side 2

5 - A Night In Tunisia

(Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli)

6 - It Could Happen To You

(Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen)

7 - You Go To My Head

(J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)

8 - Bouncing With Bud

(Bud Powell)

#1, #5:

Bud Powell (piano), Curley Russell (bass), Max Roach (drums).

#2, #6:

Bud Powell (solo piano)

#3, #4, #7, #8:

Fats Navarro (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax),

Bud Powell (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), Roy Haynes (drums).

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City,

August 9, 1949 [other source gives August 8, 1949] (#3, #4, #7, #8)

and May 1, 1951 (#1, #2, #5, #6)

The CD containing these recordings is a digital replica of the 12" LP issued two years later.

Appropriately, it too was "awarded" five stars… While Bud’s solo "Over The Rainbow" is not included, the disc is rounded out by alternate takes and additional tracks not found on the original 10" LP.

Bud Powell

The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 1

In view of the importance of this album historically, and the fact that four of its tracks have never been released previously, this part-reissue set gets listed here. Loco, one of Bud's most striking performances, is shown here in genesis. Infidels, never released on LP before, has Fats Navarro, Sonny Rollins, Tommy Potter, and Roy Haynes. Like Theme, Wail, and Bouncing with Bud (which have the same personnel and were previously on 10'' LPs), Infidels was recorded in 1949.

It Could Happen is a hitherto unreleased alternate master as is the first Tunisia. Both, like Loco and Parisian Thoroughfare, were cut in 1951 with Curly Russell and Max Roach. Ornithology with Potter and Haynes dates back to 1949. Thoroughfare, never released before, is an earlier version of the original Bud recorded for Clef. This is the first volume of two Blue Note 12'' Powell LPs. Blue Note has also repackaged in 12'' form albums by Sidney Bechet (BLP 1201), Jay Jay Johnson (BLP 1605) and Miles Davis (BLP 1501). All are recommended. Remastering has been done by Rudy Van Gelder. *Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, April 18, 1956 [5 stars])*

1 - Un Poco Loco (1st take)

(Bud Powell)

2 - Un Poco Loco (2nd take)

(Bud Powell)

3 - Un Poco Loco

(Bud Powell)

4 - Dance Of The Infidels

(Bud Powell)

5 - 52nd St. Theme

(Thelonious Monk)

6 - It Could Happen To You (alternate master)

(Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen)

7 - A Night In Tunisia (alternate master)

(Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli)

8 - A Night In Tunisia

(Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli)

9 - Wail

(Bud Powell)

10 - Ornithology

(Bennie Harris)

11 - Bouncing With Bud

(Bud Powell)

12 - Parisian Thoroughfare

(Bud Powell)

#1, #2, #3, #7, #8, #12:

Bud Powell (piano), Curley Russell (bass), Max Roach (drums).

#6:

Bud Powell (solo piano)

#4, #5, #9, #10, #11:

Fats Navarro (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax),

Bud Powell (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), Roy Haynes (drums).

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City,

August 9, 1949 [other source gives August 8, 1949] (#4, #5, #9, #10, #11)

and May 1, 1951 (#1, #2, #3, #6, #7, #8, #12)

After The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 1 came The Amazing Bud Powell • Volume 2, a logical next step for the Blue Note label.

It, too, received five stars — reason enough to leave the story here, and to pick it up again next year.

For now… a pause...

The Punta del Este lighthouse points me in the right direction for summer vacation... 

Best wishes to everyone for the upcoming 2026!

Will back in February...

◈◈◈

Miles Davis - Collectors' Items

Collectors' Items is a 1956 studio album by Miles Davis. There are two sessions collected on the album with largely different musicians. The first 1953 session is "Compulsion", "The Serpent's Tooth" (two takes) and "'Round About Midnight". The second 1956 session is "In Your Own Sweet Way", "Vierd Blues" and "No Line". The personnel for the first session were Davis, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker (credited under the pseudonym "Charlie Chan" due to contractual obligations) on tenor sax, Walter Bishop on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. For the second session, the tenor sax was Rollins alone, the piano was Tommy Flanagan, the bass Paul Chambers and Art Taylor on drums.

According to Ira Gitler's liner notes, the 1953 session was only the second time Parker had recorded on tenor saxophone. The CD edition's liner notes indicate the session was the only time Parker and Rollins recorded together.

Davis describes the session with Parker in his autobiography as having been very chaotic. It was Davis' first session of 1953 and his heroin habit had become very bad. Parker had quit his own heroin habit following the arrest of his trumpet player Red Rodney, instead drinking enormous quantities of alcohol. He consumed a quart of vodka at the rehearsal, then spoke condescendingly to Davis as if it were his session and Davis an employee or a child. After arguing, Parker fell asleep and Davis was so mad he played poorly, which in turn angered Gitler who was producing.

The 1953 session remained unreleased for several years, during which Parker died (in March 1955) and Davis left Prestige Records for Columbia Records (in 1956). Part of Davis' contractual obligation to Prestige was to record a second session to pair with the 1953 session that would give Prestige enough material for a full album. For the second session, only Rollins returned, and Davis's band included two relative newcomers to the New York jazz scene. Pianist Tommy Flanagan had just moved to New York City a few weeks prior to the Davis recording session, which was his third recording date in the city. Bassist Paul Chambers had moved to the city in 1955 and first recorded in New York in June at a session for Prestige led by trombonist Bennie Green. Chambers first recorded with Davis in October of 1955 for Columbia as part of Davis' regular performing group of the time, which included John Coltrane, Red Garland, and Philly Joe Jones. The Collectors' Items session was his third with Davis, and followed the November 1955 session for Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet. *wikipedia.org*

The term "collectors item" seems to have died weeping on the grave of the 78 rpm record. No longer do legions of record hunters haunt musty shops on Saturday afternoons in hope of finding Pres playing clarinet on  Texas  Shuffle, Bird with McShann, old Louies or Beiderbeckes. They are all on LP.

It is true that many collectors lived up to the specific meaning of the word. It was the label and master number which interested them far beyond the music. To them records were like coins or postage stamps and this type of collector does not concern me. It is the other fellow who used to find a Jay Jay Johnson solo on a Savannah Churchill record, Milt Jackson with Dinah Washington, Lester Young with Glen Hardman or Wardell Gray with Earl Hines and rejoice in the little gems of music that he had found; he is the jazz lover who will want this LP.

As I said before, many of the old out of  print items have been re-issued on LP. Now we "collect" LPs. In addition to bringing back the obsolete 78s, the LP has enabled us to hear, for instance, many of Charlie Parker's great passages through the issuance of his rejected takes which, because of their abbreviated nature, never would have found their way on to a 78 rpm disc.

The sessions that went into the make-up of this LP were taped three years apart and in a way the second has a lot to do with the first being issued. 

I appreciate a well integrated performance but will always prefer moments of sincere-emotion jazz with mistakes to the slick product which is too often palmed off  as jazz today. Whether it be old jazz or new, I guess I'm kind of a purist. *Ira Gitler (liner notes)*

Collectors' Items is in two parts. The first side was cut in January 1953, and is released for the first time. It's the session with Charlie Parker on tenor that Sonny Rollins talked about in the November 28, 1956, DownBeat. Sonny is also present on tenor with a cooking rhythm section of Philly Joe Jones, Walter Bishop and Percy Heath. The most arresting track is the mournful "'Round About Midnight", which has Bird’s best tenor and Miles' best trumpet of the date.

For the rest, his tenor work is inevitably intriguing and forceful, and I wish there had been more recorded examples of his work on the horn after he had been playing it for some months (on this date, he has a new tenor that was christened on the date). Sonny also plays with heat. Miles is in good if not outstanding form, and Philly Joe is somewhat too loud in places. Bird is called Charlie Chan on the envelope.

The newer session (the last three tracks) has better Miles, considerably improved Rollins (with fuller, warmer tone and more cohesive idea structuring), and a superior rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. Flanagan also solos with flowing distinction. Miles wrote the first two, and the third is Dave Brubeck's. The improvement in Prestige's recorded sound in three years, incidentally, is illuminating.

"Vierd Blues" is a fine demonstration of the continuing, freshening, earthy validity of the blues in modern jazz, with Sonny blowing one of his most eloquent choruses on record. This track has superb Miles and another excellent Flanagan solo. Miles treats the Brubeck ballad with sensitive intentness. Sonny is less lyrical, but his solo is built interestingly. And Flanagan, one of the few younger pianists with a quality of touch and lyricism akin to Hank Jones, speaks briefly. An important record.

*Nat Hentoff (Downbeat, December 26, 1956)*

1 - The Serpent's Tooth (take 1)

(Miles Davis)

2 - The Serpent's Tooth (take 2)

(Miles Davis)

3 - 'Round Midnight

(Monk, Williams, Hanighen)

4 - Compulsion

(Miles Davis)

5 - No Line

(Miles Davis)

6 - Vierd Blues

(Miles Davis)

7 - In Your Own Sweet Way

(Dave Brubeck)

#1 to #4:

Miles Davis (trumpet); Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker [as "Charlie Chan"] (tenor saxes); Walter Bishop (piano); Percy Heath (bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City, January 30, 1953.

#5 to #7:

Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, March 16, 1956. 

Sonny Rollins - Plus 4

The sound of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet was unmistakable on their studio recordings for EmArcy, starting in 1954. Trumpeter Brown's pointed and lyrical blowing combined with Roach's restless drums and the deliberate sound of Harold Land's tenor saxophone poured the foundation for a new daring and elegant form of hard bop.

By 1956, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins had replaced Land. He did so after turning down Miles Davis's offer in '55 to join his quintet (John Coltrane would take the job). Sonny was signed to Prestige Records and owed the label an album, so Brown, Roach, pianist (and Bud Powell's brother) Richie Powell and bassist George Morrow agreed to record on Sonny's session. The result was the gorgeous and majestic Sonny Rollins Plus 4.

Recorded on March 22, 1956, the album's songs were Sonny's "Valse Hot", Sam Coslow's "Kiss and Run", the standard "I Feel a Song Coming On", Irving Berlin's "Count Your Blessings" and Sonny's "Pent-Up House". Sonny didn't like the album's title, since it minimized Brown and Roach.

In June, the quintet was booked into Chicago's Blue Note. As Aidan Levy writes in his biography "Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins", the five men usually traveled together but split up. Roach, Morrow and Sonny drove from New York to Chicago, stopping only for gas. In advance of the gig, Brown and Powell decided to spend time with family and friends.

After leaving Philadelphia for Chicago the night of June 26, Brown, Powell and Powell's wife, Nancy shared the driving and wound up on Pennsylvania Turnpike in the rain. Nancy lost control of the car while the two musicians were sleeping and crashed. All three were killed instantly.

Sonny Rollins Plus 4 would be the quintet's last and prettiest studio recording. *Marc Myers*

1956, Sonny Rollins was spiritually and physically rejuvenated. And on Sonny Rollins Plus 4, he's clearly inspired by Max Roach and Clifford Brown's depth of spirit. Multi-dimensional re-arrangements of popular songs were a Brown-Roach trademark. "Kiss and Run" is treated to a stop-and-go intro, then settles into a brisk 4/4, as Rollins, Brown, and the perennially underrated Richie Powell fashion long dancing lines. "I Feel a Song Coming On" creates tension by alternating a vamp figure with a swinging release. Rollins takes an immense solo, contrasting chanting figures and foghorn-like long tones with Parker-ish elisions, and Brown answers with buzzing figures and daring harmonic extensions. Then Roach takes things out with sweeping melodic choruses and polyrhythmic fanfares, setting the stage for a torrid tenor-trumpet duel. On "Valse Hot", there's an early example of a successful jazz waltz as Rollins offers up one of his most charming themes. Max Roach treats the European three with the dancing elan of an American four, and Rollins responds by floating in between the beat, syncopating in Monk-ish stabs and thrusts, as Brown answers with the kind of rhythmically complex, sweetly articulated melodic lines that have inspired every modern trumpeter. *Rovi Staff*

Altho Rollins gets top billing here (for contractual reasons) this is the same combo that cut the most recent, excellent Max Roach/Clifford Brown disk on EmArcy. The modern jazz performances here are at least as rewarding, but the billing should favor the EmArcy set. Rollins, a Parker-influenced tenorman, is picking up steam and should develop into a market entity. The late Brown is superb. *Billboard, August 25, 2956*

1 - Valse Hot

(Rollins)

2 - Kiss And Run

(Coslow)

3 - I Feel A Song Coming On

(McHugh, Fields, Oppenheimer)

4 - Count Your Blessings

(Berlin)

5 - Pent-Up House

(Rollins)

Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Clifford Brown (trumpet [except #4]), Richie Powell (piano), George Morrow (bass), Max Roach (drums).

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, March 22, 1956.

Miles Davis - Conception

Literally speaking, what happened five minutes ago is history but when we talk about history usually we are not referring to the recent past. If it is history we're considering then the event must have a significance that sets it apart as something special. 

On October 5, 1951, a recording session was held whose importance memory would ill serve without the permanent evidence. All of us have been present at those magic moments when memorable music was made. If there is no recording device present, however, to preserve the sounds they become pretty hazy as the years roll by. 

When the tracks that make up this album were first issued, in part, on 10-inch LPs, we knew that they would be historic recordings. More than eighteen years later their value has increased. True the men involved have gone on to greater musical maturity and wider public acclaim, but October 5, 1951 represents a time in their lives when their playing reflected the particular kind of vitality —and way of looking at the world— that comes only from youth. At the time Art Blakey was 32 and Tommy Potter 33 —not exactly old— but I’m referring specifically to Miles Davis (25), Walter Bishop Jr. (24), Sonny Rollins (22) and Jackie McLean (19). The talent was there and so was the desire to play, fired by an involvement with a music that had captured their imagination and which they were helping to further develop.

Although all seven tracks in this LP have been released before, this is the first time that the complete session has been issued in one album. That in itself is of historical importance. Conception is some heavy history. *Ira Gitler (Liner notes, March 1970)*

Conception is a picture of what Davis learned from Parker, and a small taste of what Rollins was about to hit us with, but it’s also a defiant half-step forward towards the music that would make these guys jazz icons.

One of the great draws of jazz music is how its greatest players all tended to collaborate with each other, and the combination of Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins on Conception is no exception. These sessions, recorded in 1951 for the Prestige label, feel like a playful and inventive introduction between Davis and Rollins. We can hear them getting to know each other, falling in rhythm with one another. Of course, on top of that, we also get to see two young men just beginning to realize their powers.

Davis was just starting to pull away from his work with Charlie Parker and to make his own way. By 1951, he had already recorded the material that would become Birth of the Cool (which didn’t see release until 1956), and he was just a few years away from a string of unforgettable Prestige releases with his first quintet. Rollins too was quietly making a name for himself. He was just a few years away from creating a classic run of hiw own albums for Prestige, including 1956’s Saxophone Collosus. The impending freedom for both players to create, and the recognition that came along with it, informs at least part of these recordings. 

These tracks stretch out and jam in a way that was innovative for the time. *Matthew Fiander*

Some rewarding, sometimes dazzling post-bop jazz featuring trhee musicians' musicians — Davis, Rollins and drummer Art Blakey.  Set has drawbacks, including some drum-heavy balances, too much echo occasionally in the remastering (these were recorded in '51 and out previously on 10-inch), and Rollins' squeaky reed.

Neverthless, dyed-in-the-wool modernises will buy them. Demostrates Davis' up-tempo work on "Denial", and despite the band sound on "Dig" which actually is "Sweet Georgia Brown". *Billboard, February 4, 1956* 

Side 1

1 - Conception

(Shearing)

2 - Dig

(Davis)

3 - It's Only A Paper Moon

(Arlen, Rose, Harburg)

4 - Denial

(Davis)

Side 2

5 - Out Of The Blue

(Davis)

6 - My Old Flame

(Johnston, Koslow)

7 - Bluing

(Davis)

Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Walter Bishop, Jr. (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), Art Blakey (drums).

Recorded at Apex Studios, New York City, October 5, 1951.