Jackie McLean
Right Now!

In a subjective view, a good album is exactly like a good book: it must try to capture the listener (the reader, in the case of the book) from the first notes, from the first songs. Otherwise, there is a risk of leaving the threads of the discourse that the musician, or the writer, wants to continue behind; and at the end of the day, only a good impression of a handful of scattered chapters, of a handful of scattered songs, would remain.

The arrangement of the tracks in "Right Now!", an album by the legendary alto saxophonist Jackie McLaen and released by Blue Note in 1965, is instead a logical and calibrated arrangement: a linear arrangement that will not divert attention for even a second.

Much of this flour comes from the sack of "Eco," the track that opens the album. The explosiveness of McLean's phrasing in "Eco" is the quintessence of the track and the album itself, and is a clearly visible mark from the first bars: a structurally constant and winning formula like the rest of the album, made up of a neurotic, dynamic phrasing, marked by hammering jabs that leave no respite, except when the rhythm section, featuring Clifford Jarvis on drums and Bob Cranshaw on double bass, harmonically lays down the piece at the end of each phrase, only to resume the run, in which McLean gives breath to all his fascinating Free with a modal flavor and studded with Hard Bop references; a language that in some ways recalls some stages of Phil Woods' career. "Poor Eric" takes us to the second stop, and it has a poignant charm, almost like death makes me beautiful. A melancholic and decadent litany that leaves a deep mark: a true metropolitan funeral march that Larry Willis, in his first recording, wanted to dedicate to Eric Dolphy. Larry Willis, first as the author of the track and then as a performer on the piano, showcases all his mature sensitivity that leads him to achieve the status of the perfect alter ego of McLean, creating a close-knit and palpable chemistry in the execution, but at the same time elusive in the concept of the piece; just like a veil that is felt but not seen. McLean's sax in "Poor Eric" is leaden but not threatening, and when it begins to trace the theme, accompanied by Cranshaw's double bass, which is played with the bow during the theme's exposition, the prolonged notes emphasize a sense of blurred anguish.

The main trio of the album closes with the title track of the album: "Right Now" is a harmonically captivating, catchy piece, in which McLean's freedom aspires and reaches very high peaks, bringing the Free language to its ultimate triumph. "Christel's Time," also penned by Willis, and an alternate version of "Right Now," not present in the original edition of the album, close this masterpiece which marks one of the highest points reached by McLean in his career and one of the highest points ever reached in the vast basin called Jazz.

Buy it and enjoy.