Though
Jimmy Raney recorded under his own name as early as 1953, this 1956 set is regarded as his arrival as a leader.
Raney is as fine an arranger as he is a guitarist. These eight tracks with
Bob Brookmeyer on trombone (another fine arranger in a soloist's role) shine with the ease and fluidity of the best of the cool sessions recorded at the dawn of hard bop. One of the finest examples of the interplay between
Raney and
Brookmeyer occurs at the beginning of the album's second track, "How Long Has This Been Going On?," where the pair engage in a brief contrapuntal dialogue before
Brookmeyer solos on the melody and
Raney gently fills the space behind him by whispering his chords and fills through the trombonist's phrasing, before taking his own solo and slipping an inverted harmonic pattern on the tune's lyric line. The pair re-engage about halfway through before
Dick Katz solos on piano with a bluesy series of runs in the upper register.
Raney's own tunes, such as "The Flag Is Up," are strident and swinging without losing the breezy cool feel .
Raney's solo is a mix of bop phrasing and heated arpeggios that glide effortlessly into
Katz's comping.
Brookmeyer's "Get Off That Roof" is another swinging mini-opus that offers a new view of the trombonist as soloist.
Hank Jones plays piano here and is stellar at creating a solid backdrop for both front-line players. This is as fine a set from the end of the cool jazz period as one is likely to hear.