Inside / Outside with Jackie McLean

Jackie McLean: Melody for Melonae
From Let Freedom Ring (1962)
Jackie McLean - alto sax
Walter Davis - piano
Herbie Lewis - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

Jackie McLean: Eco
From Right Now! (1965)
Jackie McLean - alto sax
Larry Willis - piano
Bob Cranshaw - bass
Clifford Jarvis - drums

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“…we believe Jackie McLean is the most stimulating alto saxophonist on the jazz scene today. We like his style, we adore his sound, and we love his approach.”
~ The Jackie McLean fan club, from the early 1960s

Jackie McLean, who had grown up playing bop under the guidance of Bud Powell and Miles Davis, and helped to usher in hard-bop with stints in both Charles Mingus and Art Blakey’s bands, had by 1962 clearly been paying attention to what the new breed was doing – particularly Ornette Coleman. Let Freedom Ring was his first album to fully incorporate the elements of the new sound that suited his attack so well.

His sound, most often described as a cry, could express melancholy, joy or passionate anger but it always possessed a pleading sense of urgency. And although in the past his fiery solos had occasionally found him painting himself into corners, he was now thinking and reacting to the shifts of his two incredibly sympathetic and rhythmically daring young bands and bringing his solos to more emotionally satisfying resolutions.

On both of these recordings McLean was the only horn, which gave him a chance to really stretch out and swagger, and they offer fine examples of his inside/outside approach. By this time his delivery had blossomed; he was at the peak of his powers. McLean had finally figured out how to bring all of his game: passionate delivery as well as a more inventive, sophisticated song writing and most importantly, a sharper focus to the structure of his solos.

Read more about Jackie McLean (1932 - 2006) at:
Guardian UK Obituary