Duke Jordan – Flight To Jordan (180gr.)

180gr. loveliness from EMI Japan. Duke Jordan made his mark in jazz in the late 1940s as one of bebop innovator Charlie Parker’s regular pianists, but he didn’t blossom as a composer until the hard-bop era of the mid-’50s. FLIGHT TO JORDAN, his 1960 Blue Note debut, captures Jordan at a creative peak. The album features a slightly unusual combination of musicians: Reggie Workman, who would soon thereafter make his own mark in jazz’s avant-garde sector; Stanley Turrentine, whose lusciously smooth, big-toned tenor would establish him as a leading light of the soul-jazz movement; and the fine, under-recorded Jamaican trumpeter Dizzy Reece. The latter’s tart approach contrasts wonderfully to Turrentine’s sweetly earthy sound. As a bonus, this remastered reissue includes two bonus tracks, one a trio take of the beloved standard “I Should Care.”