LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

This 1968 Barry Harris encounter with five other major artists of the post-bop era is an enduring product of one of the pianist's most prolific decades. Harris's style was formed in equal parts by his own inspired individualism and his study of Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. The tributes to Monk here are obvious in the titles of two of the pieces, and to Powell in Harris's improvisation, with its drive, spiky intensity and harmonic ingenuity. His performance in "Clockwise" is a perfect representation of Harris's approach. The title tune is a faster-than-fast Harris concoction on the "I Got Rhythm" chord structure. "Barengo" is a jazz tango, a rarity in the days before Astor Piazzolla's influence. Harris's established all-star colleagues are Billy Higgins, Paul Chambers, Kenny Dorham, and Pepper Adams. The relatively newer one is his Detroit protege Charles McPherson, on tenor saxophone rather than his customary alto, still with Charlie Parker very much in mind.
Track listing:Bull's Eye, Clockwise, Off Monk, Barengo, Off Minor, Oh So Basal