Swedish Toast

I just love Jackie McLean. Such a playful sax player, often so simple and complex at the same time. He seems to have a bunch of lines that he plays over and over, with slight variations that tend to build up to a melody. I think Dexter Gordon did the same thing, repeating notes and lines to the point where you wonder how a melody could emerge. And then, suddenly, you lose awareness of the blowing horn as a device, and the music just arrives.

I highly recommend these Jackie McLean tunes:
Profile of Jackie and Love Chant - from Pithecanthropus Erectus by Mingus
Mode For Jay Mac and Where Is Love? - from A Ghetto Lullaby by McLean
Our Love Is Here To Stay - from McLean's Scene by McLean
Music From The Connection by Freddie Redd is great (the McLean one, but the Howard McGhee set is great too) and also Jammin in Hi Fi by Gene Ammons is fun, especially The Twister and Four.

There's more where this came from, just ask me if you're interested.

(and while I'm talking about great music, there is an album by Mal Waldron - Billy Holiday's pianist who also played with Jackie a lot - called For Lady, and it has a bare bones but lovingly arranged version of God Bless The Child - hhooaa, it's golden)