Jackie McLean – Tippin’ The Scales (Blue Note / Tone Poet)

180-gram LP

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tape

Plated and pressed at RTI

The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was’ admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a.k.a. the “Tone Poet,” on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

Jackie McLean’s 1960s Blue Note output is a fascinating body of work, especially viewed with the benefit of hindsight. In between recording two venturous modernist sessions — Let Freedom Ring and One Step Beyond — that would set the tone for the alto saxophonist’s future explorations, came the seemingly more conventional and relaxed quartet date Tippin’ The Scales. Recorded in September 1962 but not released until 1979, the date featured McLean with Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Art Taylor on drums delivering a swinging hard bop set that presented two originals by McLean (“Tippin’ the Scales” and “Rainy Blues”) along with three by Clark (“Nursery Blues,” “Nicely,” and “Two For One”), as well as a tender version of Vernon Duke’s “Cabin in the Sky.”

Format : Vinyl Record

1 Lp