Hank Mobley / Billy Root / Curtis Fuller / Lee Morgan - Monday Night at Birdland (1977 Japanese Roulette Vinyl LP)

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Hank Mobley / Billy Root / Curtis Fuller / Lee Morgan - Monday Night at Birdland Vinyl LP - 1977 Japanese Roulette Birdland Series Stereo Reissue

• Live hard bop at its most uninhibited, recorded at Birdland on 21 April 1958 during Symphony Sid's legendary Monday night sessions for young musicians
• A 19-year-old Lee Morgan leading the front line alongside Curtis Fuller and Hank Mobley, with Ray Bryant on piano and Specs Wright on drums
• Four extended performances including "Walkin'" and "Bag's Groove", the kind of open blowing vehicles that allowed this front line to stretch
• 1977 Japanese Roulette Birdland Series stereo pressing, manufactured by Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.

Recorded live at Birdland, New York City on 21 April 1958 and originally released on Roulette the same year, Monday Night at Birdland captures the Monday night sessions that disc jockey Symphony Sid hosted at the club when the regular bill was off and the younger musicians came in to play. The front line of Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, and Hank Mobley on tenor, with Billy Root on additional saxophone, Ray Bryant on piano, Tommy Bryant on bass and Specs Wright on drums, is an extraordinary gathering of hard bop talent at a moment when all of them were ascending. Morgan in particular commands attention: he was 19 years old at the time of the recording, already in possession of the clear, full-toned attack and rhythmically assertive phrasing that would define his Blue Note recordings across the decade ahead. The four tracks selected for this pressing, "Walkin'", "All the Things You Are", "Bag's Groove" and "There Will Never Be Another You", are the kind of open blowing vehicles that suited the Birdland setting, long enough to allow the front line to develop ideas at length without the constraints of a studio session. 

Mobley's tenor sits at the centre of the session, his characteristically warm, slightly smoky tone providing a point of contrast to Morgan's brightness and Fuller's French horn-like richness. Ray Bryant's piano comping, assured and rhythmically grounded, holds the rhythm section together beneath Specs Wright's drums across four performances that run as extended jam sessions rather than tightly arranged set pieces. Released in Japan in 1977 on Roulette (YW-7812-RO) as part of the Birdland Series and manufactured by Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd., this pressing presents a live document of hard bop at street level, not a Blue Note session under Van Gelder's microphones but musicians playing for a room, the energy of the performance intact.