George Coleman Quintet - The George Colman Quintet in Baltimore (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

One of jazz’s most powerful tenor saxophonists is heard at his freewheeling, unfettered best on The George Coleman Quintet in Baltimore, a hitherto unheard live recording due from Reel to Real Recordings as an exclusive. The high-energy set, captured at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore on May 23, 1971, by engineer Vernon Welsh for the Left Bank Jazz Society, and restored for Reel to Real by Chris Gestrin.

The set marks the second project from the Left Bank—which mounted live jazz shows in Baltimore from 1964 through the ‘90s—to be unearthed by Resonance Records co-president and noted “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman, who is partnered in Reel to Real with Vancouver-based jazz impresario and saxophonist Cory Weeds. Reel to Real previously issued A Soulful Sunday by vocalist Etta Jones featuring the Cedar Walton Trio.

Now 85, Coleman was the product of the fertile jazz scene in Memphis, which produced such renowned contemporaries as Charles Lloyd, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Frank Strozier, Booker Little, Hank Crawford, and the tenorist’s longtime band mate Harold Mabern. From the early ‘60s, he was a noted sideman, perhaps best known for his 1963-64 stint with Miles Davis’ “second great quintet,” which included Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. He also made notable records with Hancock (the classic Maiden Voyage), Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, Jimmy Smith, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, among others.

Coleman cut his first studio album as a leader in 1977; he played and recorded regularly with Mabern until the keyboardist’s death in 2019. Reel to Real’s new release represents the saxophonist’s earliest available live offering fronting a nonpareil combo of his own.

He is joined by trumpeter Danny Moore (whose credits include work with Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Oliver Nelson, Buddy Rich, and Dizzy Gillespie), pianist Albert Dailey (Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey), bassist Larry Ridley (Horace Silver, Jackie McLean, Philly Joe Jones, Randy Weston, Barry Harris), and drummer Harold White (Gary Bartz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eddie Jefferson).

TRACKLIST

01. George Coleman Quintet - Afternoon in Paris (Live)
02. George Coleman Quintet - Sandu (Live)
03. George Coleman Quintet - I Got Rhythm (Live)
04. George Coleman Quintet - Body & Soul (Live)
05. George Coleman Quintet - Joy Spring (Live)



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