Track Listing

1. Cool Struttin'
2. Blue Minor
3. Sippin' at Bells
4. Deep Night
5. Royal Flush [*]
6. Lover [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27939 in Music
• Released on: 1999-04-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Sonny Clark was ubiquitous at Blue Note sessions and led a handful of great albums of his own along the way. Cool Struttin' has a wonderful after-hours feel, especially on the extended title blues.

Amazon.com
1957 was a busy year for the pianist Sonny Clark. Aside from Cool Struttin', he also released six other LPs on Blue Note. His astounding output, however, was cut short due to his premature death in 1963. The highlight of Clark's prolific period must be Cool Struttin', a session featuring a virtual who's who of Blue Note's then-rising young crop of hard-bop stars. The recording opens with the aptly named title cut, as Clark's jaunty, forward-leaning piano drives the tune with crisp precision. The rest of the disc (this edition contains the Rodgers and Hart tune "Lover," which did not appear on the original release) is a sterling example of late-50s, finger-poppin' bop with the likes of trumpeter Art Farmer, saxophonist Jackie McClean, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones stretching out and digging in. --S. Duda

Customer Reviews

Iconic Blue Note jazz
Sonny Clark was, like Kenny Drew, one of the favourite pianists among the hard-boppers, & he put in a lot of sideman appearances in the 1950s & 1960s (though, interestingly enough, he got his start as an accompanist to Buddy DeFranco). His playing draws on the main models of the time--Powell, Monk, Silver--along with one unexpected source, Lennie Tristano (not an obvious influence beyond Clark's fondness for extremely long & cogently argued lines in his solos). But Clark's playing is nonetheless immediately recognizable, both when he solos, & when he comps--he is an especially logical accompanist.

This album contains 6 tracks, of which two ("Lover" & "Royal Flush") were not present on the original vinyl. Though not all the tunes are blues, the blues inform the album's mostly relaxed, minor-key mood and pacing. Jackie McLean is a key voice here, delivering one of his most brilliant performances of the 1950s; his tone is here unusually limpid, without the abrasiveness & deliberately idiosyncratic pitching of other McLean recordings of this period. Art Farmer is an unusual choice for the trumpet chair--if this were recorded a few years later I'm sure Morgan, Byrd or Hubbard would have got the date, all Blue Note favourites--but proves an excellent choice because of his temperamental reserve & poise. The key performance here is the medium-up "Deep Night", a rather little-played standard (I think I've only one other performance of it in my collection, on Betty Carter's _The Audience With..._). Clark's opening statement is comparable to Horace Silver's more pensive moments (e.g. "Melancholy Mood" on _Blowin' the Blues Away_) but unfolds with a gentle but inexorable logic that I find quite breathtaking: the track builds in excitement as Philly Joe Jones switches from brushes to sticks when Farmer comes in, & as the mood intensifies with Jackie McLean's solo. It's truly exciting.

A lovely, lovely disc. One oddity is that "Lover", the second of the previously unreleased tracks, contains no solo by the leader....which explains why it wasn't released, I guess. Anyway, this is an essential disc.

The quintessential Blue Note hard-bop album.
If you were forced to buy only one late-fifties Blue Note album, this would be an excellent choice. Few could swing as LUCIDLY as Sonny Clarke, and with Jackie McClean and Art Farmer making strong contributions throughout, this is a superior "blowing session" album. Clarke was a superb sideman but as a leader he rarely equaled this peak. An essential LP at any price.

The Strut, Art Farmer, and Sonny's killer piano
The title track here may be the most aptly named tune in all of jazz. That tune starts and you can just see some slick dresser turning a corner, coming at you all flossin'-and-glossin' on his way to pick up his woman. Or someone elses woman! I also love the title track for Sonny's playing, his bluesiest of the album. I'm not the biggest Jackie McClean fan in the world but this track is also his finest playing of the whole album, in my opinion. Just great action from everyone on this song!

Not to slight anyone else here, as this is one great album, but Art Farmer is just The Man here. I still wonder why you don't hear more people singing his praises. I just love that Art's playing is sorta reserved or low key, and he has fantastic tone. Musically, he has plenty of things to say without having to be nearly as boisterous as, say, Freddie Hubbard.

Most of the album is strong, but every time the disc ends I always jump back to listen to track one again. Beyond the fact that there is great stuff all over this disc, the title track makes it essential. It's one of my single favorite tunes and performances in the entire Blue Note world.