Destination Out (LP)

When Jackie McLean began recording for Blue Note in 1959, the alto saxophonist had already been a mainstay of the New York jazz scene for nearly a decade, having spent the entire 1950s cutting his teeth alongside bebop legends. like Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. In the early 1960s, McLean's innovative hard bop sound began to take on a harder edge and a more adventurous spirit. Inspired by artists like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, McLean began to seek greater freedom of expression in his music and to introduce avant-garde elements, without ever giving up his sense of swing and chord structures.

On the album One Step Beyondwhich he recorded in 1963 with his quintet, McLean teamed up with trombonist and composer Grachan Moncur III and brought in vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson instead of a pianist, which gave the music a more free and more spacious. Inspired by this new musical direction and the band's tonal qualities, McLean brought Moncur and Hutcherson back into the studio later that year, with Larry Ridley on bass and Roy Haynes, to record what would be his masterpiece of jazz inside-out: Destination... Out!On four original tracks - three by Moncur ("Love and Hate", "Esoteric", "Riff Raff") and one by McLean ("Kahlil the Prophet") - the quintet explores, evoking different moods and creating new sounds exciting ones that still sound fresh today.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is fully analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.