Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release by Tadd Dameron, complete with original artwork and liner notes. “Fats Navarro Featured With The Tadd Dameron Quintet”; ”Fontainebleau”; Tadd Dameron with John Coltrane-“Mating Call” and ”The Magic Touch”. Starting out in the 1940’s swing era, writer, pianist, arranger and conductor Tadd Dameron went on to become one of the foremost arranger/composers of the bop era. Amongst the great names he has worked with are:- Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, Milt Jackson, Fats Navarro, Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie.

This fine set, recorded on November 30, 1956, has been reissued several times, often as a John Coltrane date, but make no mistake, this is a Tadd Dameron session, and his elegant compositions are its key component. Coltrane was fresh off playing with Miles Davis in 1956 and was still a year away from heading his own sessions and three years away from recording Giant Steps, so it might be said that he was in transition, but then when was Coltrane not in transition? Dameron wisely gives him plenty of space to fill, and the rhythm section of John Simmons on bass and the great Philly Joe Jones on drums (not to mention Dameron's own characteristically bass-heavy piano style) give Trane a solid bottom to work with, and if the spiritual and edgy emotion of his later playing isn't quite in place yet, you can feel it coming…