New York, N.Y. (180g Red Vinyl LP)

In his introduction to the opening number, the entirely appropriate Manhattan, singer and lyricist Hendricks reminds us he once wrote the shortest jazz poem ever heard…Listen. Well, that’s good advice. Just listen and enjoy the headlong rush of exhilarating performances inspired by life in the Big Apple. The need to get down to business is soon established by Charlie Persip’s drumming that has all the urgency of that city’s rush hour. Charlie’s brushes set the rhythm while Jon does his rhyming thing, before the massed ranks of an all-star brass section roar into action. In a constantly evolving arrangement, the full orchestra tends to dominate. But it courteously gives up its N.Y. Subway seats every now and then, to give the soloists room for musical manoeuvre. In New York George met and worked with Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans. His own theoretical ideas including the Lydian Concept helped pave the way for the modal style adopted by Miles and John Coltrane in the 1950s. He had earlier arranged the Afro-Cuban theme Cubana-Be And Cubana-Bop recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in 1947. In later years George worked intensively with Bill Evans, composing an orchestral suite All About Rosie featuring the pianist. Russell eventually moved to Sweden and toured Europe with his own sextet. In 1969 he returned to the U.S. to take a teaching post in Boston.