Shortly before he signed with RCA, the fine hard bop tenor saxophonist
Don Braden recorded this fairly straight-ahead quintet date with trumpeter
Tim Hagans, pianist
Kenny Werner, bassist
Larry Grenadier and drummer
Billy Hart. The instrumentation differs on some of the tracks, with Hagans on around half the songs, Werner sometimes sitting out, and "Lush Life" being taken as a tenor/piano duet. There are some surprises along the way, with a few of the standards reharmonized a little, "Scrapple from the Apple" being played largely without chords (a la
Ornette Coleman), and "I Thought About You" becoming a tenor/bass duet. An excellent outing that finds
Don Braden stretching a bit beyond his hard bop roots. ~ Scott Yanow