Well, "album of the year" might be a hard claim to live up to – but this is a heck of a great record! The album's one of
Blakey's real sleepers – cut years away from his time at Blue Note, with a fluid soulful approach that steps off his work at Prestige quite nicely. The real strength of the set is the group – as even at this point,
Blakey's got an insanely perfect ear for picking young talent. Every player's a star, and the group features work by Bobby Watson, James Williams, Bill Pierce, Charles Fambrough, and even a young
Wynton Marsalis, who still sounds pretty nice at this point. The set list include some great tracks, too, originals by group members that include "Soulful Mister Timmons", "Little Man", "In Case You Missed It", and "Ms BC".
(CONDITION NOTES: Booklet has water damage. Priced accordingly.)