Tina Brooks - True Blue [Remastered] (1960/2015)

Tina Brooks' star burned with intense brightness before disappearing in the same tragic manner of too many other bop players of the time. Many jazz fans missed Tina Brooks' recordings, the best of which were extraordinary by any measure. A soulful hard bop tenor-saxophonist with a sound of his own, Brooks (1932-74) had a brief life. Most of his better known recordings as a leader and sideman took place during a four year period from 1958-61. Unsung at the time, Brooks is now considered a true giant of the art. Brooks' passionate and full sound and forward-looking style, along with his exceptional compositional gifts, combined to make him a powerful force. True Blue has become one of the most sought-after Blue Notes of all time. True Blue, along with the album Back To The Tracks, contains most of Tina Brooks finest moments on record. Recorded in June of 1960, True Blue showcases Brooks along with the young firebrand trumpeter Freddie Hubbard in a set of highly inventive originals. Driven by an all-star rhythm section, True Blue is exhibit No. 1 for proof of Tina Brooks' majestic sound and soulful writing prowess. For many aficionados of the Blue Note label, Tina Brooks' True Blue is the very essence of the Blue Note sound and feel.

There is a terrifically pensive blues cry in every Brooks solo on this release that is mesmerizing. While he's often shadowed by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, the two gracefully bring out some profoundly thoughtful improvising from each other. None of the five tunes (and two alternative takes) are exactly inspiring tunes. But Brooks packs a lot of raw emotionality and innovative musical craft into his solos. Although the liner notes makes much of the Sonny Rollins influence, I actually hear a lot more of a tone I'd connect to Booker Erwin, Ornette Coleman, or Brooks' companion in the Blue Note recording studio, Jackie McLean. Anyone who enjoyed the dramatic support Brooks gave McLean on Jackie's Bag should treasure this, the only album Brooks released under his name as leader during his lifetime. Brooks sounds like a desperately driven musician wanting something beyond the bop of 1960 and never quite making the breakthrough to freedom that McLean found through his association with Ornette Coleman. The rhythm section of drummer Art Taylor, bassist Sam Jones, and pianist Duke Jordan simply never push him that hard to explore new musical territory. I wonder who Brooks would have become had he worked with a drummer like Eddie Blackwell or Elvin Jones.
What True Blue gives generously is a full blooded musical portrait of a hard-working and distinctive sounding tenor man with a blue cry stuck in his throat and heart. It is an achievement to treasure. --Norman Weinstein, All About Jazz