Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1976 Japanese ABC Impulse! Stereo Gatefold LP)

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Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth | Vinyl LP - 1976 Japanese ABC Impulse! Stereo Gatefold Reissue (YP-8501-AI, Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.)

Oliver Nelson had recorded six albums as a leader for Prestige before Creed Taylor signed him to Impulse! for this, the label's second release. Nelson composed all six pieces and wrote all the arrangements. He also wrote the liner notes, in which he discussed the structure of each composition and praised his sidemen individually - closing by tipping his cap to George Barrow, "who played only a supporting role" on baritone saxophone throughout the ensemble passages.

"Stolen Moments" opens the album. It is a 16-bar theme over a minor blues, the horn voicing moving through a sequence of chromatic shifts that gives the melody its particular character. The solos are taken over a standard minor blues. Every musician in the room solos. Nelson had developed the composition while playing tenor in Quincy Jones's big band, and the writing shows that orchestral thinking applied to a small group.

"Hoe-Down" is the album's oddest piece. Hubbard described it as "kind of out of context" and noted that Nelson had built the bridge around a Coltrane lick that Hubbard himself had been using. "Cascades" began as a saxophone exercise Nelson had written in school. "Yearnin'" is the most lyrical track, Evans's comping behind Hubbard's trumpet noted by reviewers as some of the finest accompaniment on the record. "Butch and Butch" is the fastest piece. "Teenie's Blues" closes the record with a smaller ensemble - Hubbard and Barrow absent, the remaining four plus Nelson and Dolphy playing a blues that is the most direct piece on the album.

This is the 1976 Japanese ABC Impulse! stereo gatefold reissue (YP-8501-AI), manufactured by Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.