{"product_id":"jackie-mclean-let-freedom-ring-2024-tone-poet-vinyl-series","title":"Jackie McLean - Let Freedom Ring (Tone Poet Vinyl Series)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— The Analog Vault \/\/ Essential Listening —\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJackie McLean had always been a highly emotional soloist, so it makes sense that he was one of the first hard bop veterans to find a new voice in the burning intensity of jazz's emerging avant-garde. McLean had previously experimented with Coltrane's angular modes and scales and Ornette's concept of chordal freedom, but \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring \u003c\/em\u003ewas the landmark masterpiece where he put everything together and ushered in the era of the modernists at Blue Note.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA number of saxophonists were beginning to explore the ability of the instrument to mimic human cries of passion, and here McLean perfected a long, piercing squeal capable of expressing joy, anguish, fury, and more. The music on\u003cem\u003e Let Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e remained more rooted in hard bop structure than Coleman's, and McLean was still recognizably himself, but that was precisely what was revolutionary about the album: It validated the avant-garde aesthetic, demonstrating that it had enough value to convert members of the old guard, and wasn't just the province of radical outcasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are only four pieces, one of which is the surging Bud Powell ballad \"I'll Keep Loving You\"; the other three are McLean originals (\"Melody for Melonae,\" \"Rene,\" and \"Omega,\" dedicated to his daughter, son, and mother respectively) that spotlight his tremendous inventiveness on extended material and amaze with a smoldering fire that never lets up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePianist Walter Davis takes the occasional solo, but the record is McLean's statement of purpose, and he accordingly dominates the proceedings, with the busy, free-flowing dialogues of bassist Herbie Lewis and Ornette drummer Billy Higgins pushing him to even greater heights. The success of \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e paved the way for a bumper crop of other modernist innovators to join the Blue Note roster and, artistically, it still stands with One Step Beyond as McLean's greatest work. — (via Steve Huey \/\/\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/let-freedom-ring-mw0000188382\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e AllMusic\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJackie McLean’s 1962 album \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e reflected the change in the air of the early ‘60s: both the musical freedoms being explored by the emergent avant-garde movement and the social freedoms sought by the ascendent civil rights movement. This four-song set featuring the alto saxophonist with Walter Davis Jr. on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums melds the bluesy language of hard bop with the bristling energy of The New Thing. McLean’s emotive horn wails, shrieks, and soothes as the quartet moves through three striking McLean originals: “Melody For Melonae” (dedicated to his daughter), “Rene” (dedicated to his son), and “Omega” (dedicated to his mother). A plaintive rendition of the Bud Powell ballad “I’ll Keep Loving You” rounds out the date. — (via \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/store.bluenote.com\/products\/jackie-mclean-let-freedom-ring-lp-tone-poet-vinyl-series?srsltid=AfmBOopSGFoL_tsb7oonpCuG6MS9LeOhkMs078bLN5poT0gWyo9d3Uv7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eLabel\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--StartFragment --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e: How Jackie McLean Began To Break Free: The story behind the alto saxophonist’s 1962 manifesto for musical liberation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003eAnyone who is familiar with Jackie McLean’s classic Blue Note album \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e will know that the alto saxophonist had one of the most distinctive sounds in jazz. His instrument’s intonation was always intentionally slightly sharp, which resulted in an acerbic tone that gave his music a cutting edge. It wasn’t to everyone’s taste, of course, and for some listeners, it was a sound as jarring as fingernails clawing a chalkboard. But for McLean, who once proudly declared, “I’m a sugar-free saxophonist,” his divisive sound mirrored his personal circumstances: “My life has been sweet and sour, bittersweet, and I’m interpreting my experience.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003eOn the face of it, \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e appeared to be just another record date in a long line of sessions that the young alto saxophonist had recorded for Blue Note after joining the company in 1959. Before that, he had recorded several LPs for Prestige in the wake of his recording debut as a 20-year-old wunderkind on Miles Davis’ 1951 album \u003cem\u003eDig\u003c\/em\u003e. Influenced by Davis along with Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk, McLean gradually developed his own sound and became a committed disciple of hard bop, an earthy, blues and gospel-stained offshoot of bebop that had become jazz’s hottest currency in the 1950s. But like his early mentor, Miles Davis, McLean was a restlessly curious musician who grew averse to repeating himself. You can hear this loud and clear in Let Freedom Ring, a landmark album that marked a decisive inflection point in the saxophonist’s career.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003eLike many jazz musicians working in the late 50s and early 60s, McLean had been deeply affected by the revolutionary approach of Ornette Coleman, who had thrown the musical equivalent of a hand grenade into the jazz world with his explosive 1959 album The Shape Of Jazz To Come. Jettisoning orthodox concepts of melody, harmony, structure, and rhythm, Coleman divided the jazz community. Some, like McLean, were hugely excited. McLean saw possible solutions to musical issues that he was grappling with around the same time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003eIndeed, in his liner notes to \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e, McLean confesses that “getting away from the conventional and much-overused chord changes was my personal dilemma.” In other words, he was beginning to find that hard bop had become a musical cul-de-sac and was both restricting his creativity and taxing his imagination. But Coleman’s innovations offered a way out. “(He) has made me stop and think,” wrote McLean in \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e’s liner notes. “He has stood up under much criticism, yet he never gives up his cause, freedom of expression.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf0\"\u003eGiven his feelings at the time, it was no surprise to see McLean recruit Ornette Coleman’s drummer Billy Higgins to play at the recording session taped at Rudy Van Gelder’s famous studio in New Jersey. “I sure dig the groove Billy gets,” McLean said of the 26-year-old Los Angeles sticks man, who had appeared on The Shape Of Jazz To Come and several of the contentious saxophonist’s other groundbreaking late 50s\/early 60s records. On bass, McLean brought in 21-year-old Herbie Lewis, who had played on several sessions by soul-jazz pianist Les McCann, and occupying the piano stool was 29-year-old Walter Davis Jr, who had cut his teeth with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Lewis and Bishop, with their receptive soul jazz and hard bop backgrounds, hardly seemed revolutionaries or musicians intent on pushing the jazz envelope but with their presence, McLean seemed to find a sense of musical balance \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003e– between hard bop and ultra-modernism – that shaped the unique character of \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003eIn fact, the album bore little resemblance to the sonic extremism of Ornette Coleman. By turns haunting and hard-swinging, “Melody for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003eMelonae\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003e” – written for and dedicated to McLean’s then six-year-old daughter, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003eMelonae\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003e – used the scale-based modal structures that Miles Davis helped pioneer on Kind Of Blue while “I’ll Keep Loving You,” was a cover of a Bud Powell ballad transformed by McLean’s eerie, high-pitched squeals. And the language of the blues was prominent in both “Rene,” named after McLean’s son, and “Omega,” written for his mother, Alpha Omega McLean.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"pf0\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003eSonically, the music walked a tightrope between the conventional and unorthodox; a quality that would be further reflected in McLean’s work as the 1960s unfurled. \u003cem\u003eLet Freedom Ring\u003c\/em\u003e, however, is where it all started. Without \u003cem\u003eFreedom’s\u003c\/em\u003e emancipation from the jaded vocabulary of bebop, there would be no \u003cem\u003eOne Step Beyond\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDestination…Out\u003c\/em\u003e!, albums which firmly placed McLean firmly in the vanguard of improvised avant-garde music. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"cf1\"\u003e— (via \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.udiscovermusic.com\/stories\/jackie-mclean-let-freedom-ring-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eLabel\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--EndFragment --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" style=\"border-radius: 12px;\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7cDdrBZaImUjYGqkir7bVw?utm_source=generator\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003e↓\u003cbr\u003eLabel: Blue Note\u003cbr\u003eSeries: Blue Note Tone Poet Series\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 180g, Gatefold\u003cbr\u003eCountry: Worldwide\u003cbr\u003eReissued: 2024 \/ Original Release: 1963\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Jazz\u003cbr\u003eStyle: Hard Bop\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFile under: TAV Essential Listening\u003cbr\u003eFile under: Jazz \/\/ Blue Note Tone Poet Series\u003cbr\u003e⦿\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44328309293214,"sku":"602448644343","price":70.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0584\/5434\/3838\/files\/R-31644157-1725683314-4387_fe5e2969-79e2-49c7-855b-dce06e2e8f61.jpg?v=1727416165","url":"https:\/\/theanalogvault.mom\/products\/jackie-mclean-let-freedom-ring-2024-tone-poet-vinyl-series","provider":"The Analog Vault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}