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Rating: This album by McLean is very personal to me. It was because of one of the tracks contained within it that I gave up the drums and bought an alto sax, enthused by the particular style of the saxophonist. Luckily for jazz, after a year of long, dynamic notes, I returned to the drums. But my infatuation with the New York saxophonist has remained intact over the years; what makes me love his tone is the intonation, rising and aggressive, and the peremptory phrasing. Moreover, McLean was a musician who, although gravitating in the B+ series (by B+ series I mean those artists of the highest level who are neither Parker nor Davis), for the character of the production and the type of "engagement" of Blue Note, which kept him among the leading artists of the hard bop wave, managed to renew himself and embrace the lesson of the new thing, personalizing it. For this artist's career, I refer you to Wikipedia which describes the life of the alto saxophonist and the musical context in which he moved far better than I could.
With this review, I want to focus on one of his long-playing records that I love a lot but which for years has been considered a minor chapter; I'm talking about "A Fickle Sonance". In the 33, beside the leader, appears the trumpet of Tommy Turrentine (brother of the more famous Stanley), the piano of Sonny Clark, and the double bass of Butch Warren. The sparkling ride cymbal is the work of the serene, sunny Billy Higgins. In short, at first glance, we are in the realm of the consolidated, secure Blue Note standard: one or more characteristic soloists, a well-practiced rhythm section, and warm hard bop. But, as often happened with McLean's work, there's always an extra spice among the tracks…
After starting as one of the most personal voices in the wake of Parker, of whom he was a protégé, at 19 the New York altoist was already recording with Miles Davis; besides this fundamental experience, even though it was during the trumpeter's dark period, it is necessary to mention McLean's time with Art Blakey's Messengers, during the first brilliant RCA period, and especially the collaboration with Thelonious Monk, fundamental for opening up new harmonic and rhythmic horizons. Monk would dedicate a piece to McLean, "Jackie-ing," with its rhythmically disjointed and dangerous theme. And thanks to this connection to Monk, I can begin to write about the record in question; the first track "Five Will Get You Ten" (Clark) is a theme written on the harmonies of the Monkian "Well You Needn't," with alterations that make the timbre of the piece more melancholic, at times dark; the structure is ABA with A in afro and B in swing. The theme is of a certain complexity, with truly Monkian surges within a mostly laid-back line. A fascinating piece.
"Subdued"(McLean) continues the trick of masked tracks, typical of bop. And the connection with Parker is here twofold, as McLean allows himself a solo moment over the plot of "Embraceable you". The strident, almost distorted sound, the rhythmic embellishments, and the masterful command of execution make "Subdued" a moment of acrid, sorrowful urban poetry. Turrentine is not present in the piece, for reasons of aesthetic balance. This is a tribute to the master and mentor Bird.
"Sundu" (Clark) is a minor blues whose theme is a repeated rhythmic phrase. Here my love for McLean was sparked: a characteristic of the saxophonist, among the most prominent, is the decisiveness in the attack of the improvisation. In "Sundu," there are nine notes that seem like sharp knife blades. The obsessive, no-exit atmosphere of the entire performance is punctuated by the military-like counterpoint of the magical Higgins, whose work within the LP is peculiar, enlivening, as if by magic, the usual figures of bop. Note the characteristic compositional style of the pianist that will emerge in his famous "Cool struttin'" and "Leapin' and lopin'," so dear to John Zorn.
With "A Fickle Sonance" (McLean) (the title programmatically means more or less "A different, dissonant sonority") we are at the most experimental and daring moment of the record, linking this album to previous LP tracks such as "Quadrangle," or to future transgressions, especially throughout "Let freedom ring" where McLean's musical agenda will begin to wander into the territories of dolphian and colemanian avant-garde. The hysterical theme, with peaks and jumps, establishes the unchanged atmosphere on which the group's modal improvisations unfold. Every improvisation term presents with a stop time and a brief and rarefied ostinato of bass and drums. Turrentine, with his grand and rounded sound and cliffordbrownian-morganian line-inspired phrasing, in this rather daring track, almost a detachment from the entire vinyl, goes further.
Things get back on track, splendidly, with "Enitnerrut"(Turrentine, obviously), a typical minor AABC hard bop with A in afro. Another deadly entrance, relentless from the saxophonist, with a grit and a dry, acid humor enough to give you chills, sustained by the elastic launches and the gallop of the rhythm section. To close "A Fickle Sonance" is the bright rumba of "Lost"(Warren), almost a blues with a bridge, with the chattering snare of Higgins.
In essence, "A Fickle Sonance" is a middle album, a meeting between hard bop and moderate avant-garde. But I absolutely do not mean to diminish its value; on the contrary, it is thanks to artists like McLean that bold figures like Coleman found support and recognition. This and other perhaps more radical albums of the altoist have served as a vehicle for the word free and experimental.
A hooray for McLean (who left us in March 2006)!!!
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