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Review: Bashed out in no time at all, Andrew Hill's Andrew!!! drew on an astonishing creative upsurge enjoyed by many a musician in the early 1960s, which proved fortuitous for the pianist's storied early-career Blue Note run. Captured in 1964 with a distinctive quintet including John Gilmore, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis, and Joe Chambers, this de facto debut showcases Hill's singular compositional voice across six dense, exploratory originals like 'The Griots' and 'Black Monday'; while his earlier Point Of Departure tends to attract the spotlight, Andrew!!! colours between the lines in a different shade. But like the former, it no less now benefits from BN's Joe Harley's audiophiliac oversight, preserving the subtle textures and telepathic interplay that define Hill's gauche-adroit playing.

Review: Boston-born baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff was an early bebop innovator who delivered his defining work with Blue Serge in 1956. He was admired for his lyrical agility on an often unwieldy instrument and apparently overcame some personal struggles to record this standout session for Capitol Records, which finds him backed by jazz greats Sonny Clark on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Philly Joe Jones on sticks. The album features a simmering, relaxed set of standards, including 'A Handful of Stars' and 'All the Things You Are' plus his own 'Susie's Blues.' Blue Serge is a timeless testament to Chaloff's unique sounds and a gem of West Coast cool.