FLAC files + Covers
Released in October 26, 1961
Personnel: Tommy Turrentine: trumpet / Jackie McLean: alto sax / Sonny Clark: piano / Butch Warren: bass / Billy Higgins: drums.

Track Listing:
1. Five Will Get You Ten
2. Subdued
3. Sundu
4. Fickle Sonance
5. Enitnerrut
6. Lost


Jackie McLean was one of the more advanced hard bop alto players in the late 1950s. He plays with urgency and has a recognizably sour tone. Attempting to break away from stereotypical hard bop composing and playing around the end of the decade, he began to listen to modal jazz and Ornette Coleman. A bit later in the 1960s experimented with concepts from free jazz on albums such as 1962's Let Freedom Ring.
His 1961 session, A Fickle Sonance, has still not broken away from bop, but has adventurous writing and playing, nevertheless. McLean has distributed the songwriting duties among the players, with two tunes each by McLean and Sonny Clark and one each by bassist Butch Warren and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine. (Note that some have attributed Clark-credited "Five Will Get You Ten" to Thelonious Monk.) It's good to finally have the first U.S. CD release of this session.


Enjoy!