A Blowin' Session is one of the greatest hard bop jam sessions ever recorded; it is filled with infectious passion and camaraderie. It's also the only time tenor saxophonists
Johnny Griffin and
John Coltrane would play together on record. Initially
Coltrane wasn't scheduled to be on this date, but
Griffin saw him on his way to
Rudy Van Gelder's studio and asked him to join the remaining musicians, third tenor
Hank Mobley, trumpeter
Lee Morgan, pianist
Wynton Kelly, bassist
Paul Chambers, and drummer
Art Blakey. These musicians were all associates within the same East Coast hard bop scene of the time; they came from
the Jazz Messengers and
Miles Davis' quintet, and many had played with
Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Showcased on this April 8, 1957, session are two standards,
"The Way You Look Tonight" and
"All the Things You Are," along with two original
Griffin compositions,
"Ball Bearing" and
"Smoke Stack." (An added bonus on the 1999
Rudy Van Gelder remastered edition is an alternate take of
"Smoke Stack.") Of special note is
"The Way You Look Tonight," featuring the three tenors trading off with complexity and speed that is still astonishing, especially in the case of
Griffin (dubbed the world's fastest saxophonist) and
Coltrane's ability to navigate complex chord changes over a fast tempo. ~ Al Campbell
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