Jackie McLean - One Step Beyond (1978 Japanese Blue Note Masterpiece Selection LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: EX
Obi: EX

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Jackie McLean - One Step Beyond Vinyl LP - 1978 Japanese Blue Note Masterpiece Selection 150 Stereo Reissue

• McLean's avant-garde breakthrough - pushing beyond hard bop into freer territory with adventurous quintet
• 17-year-old Tony Williams on drums - future Miles Davis drummer's Blue Note debut
• Japanese Masterpiece Selection 150 - 1978 King Records pressing with obi and insert.

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's 1963 Blue Note session represents his move beyond conventional hard bop into more adventurous territory, the quintet featuring vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, bassist Eddie Khan, and 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams (months before joining Miles Davis' quintet) exploring four McLean compositions that balance structure with greater harmonic and rhythmic freedom. Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, the album's title reflects McLean's conscious step beyond bebop and hard bop conventions toward the "new thing" emerging in early 1960s jazz, his alto saxophone sound—edgy, intense, slightly sharp in pitch—perfectly suited to this more exploratory music. Released in Japan in 1978 as part of Blue Note's Masterpiece Selection 150 series by King Record Co. Ltd. with obi and insert, this pressing captures McLean at a creative crossroads, pushing boundaries while maintaining connection to jazz tradition.

The quintet's unusual instrumentation (alto, trombone, vibes, bass, drums—no piano or guitar) creates open harmonic space allowing freer improvisation, Hutcherson's vibraphone adding shimmering colours while Moncur's trombone provides lower register counterpoint to McLean's alto. Williams' drumming, astonishingly mature for seventeen, demonstrates the rhythmic sophistication and independent voice that would revolutionize jazz drumming with Davis. Tracks like "Frankenstein" and "Ghost Town" explore dissonance and unconventional structures while "Saturday And Sunday" and "Blue Rondo" maintain stronger melodic and formal frameworks. Van Gelder's recording and King Records' Japanese pressing preserve this pivotal session where hard bop met the avant-garde.