Fantastic late 50s “hard bop” jazz record, with Clark joined by Art Farmer (trumpet), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, liner notes by Nat Hentoff. This should be in everyone’s vinyl collection whether you think of yourself as a Jazz fan or not.

The session as a whole seems to me . . . to embody Sonny’s definition of what “soul” in jazz is: :I take it to mean your growing up to the capacities of the instrument. Your soul is your conception and you begin to have it in your playing when the way you strike a note, the sound you get and your phrasing come out of you yourself and no one else. That’s what jazz is, after all, self-expression” – Nat Hentoff

I had a cheaper DOL reissue copy – but this copy is a 2014 Blue Note reissue, part of the Blue Note Records 75th Anniversary series, with lacquer cut by Chris Bellman – via Worcester Record Riot. It sounds fantastic and reinforces the impact that mastering for vinyl can have.