Brew Moore - West Coast Brew: Brew Moore Quartet & Quintet Sessions 1955-1958 (2012)

Lesterian tenor saxophonist Brew Moore (1924-1973) spent much of his career like an archetypal Fifties counterculture icon, always on the move, turning up in New York, or San Francisco, Copenhagen or Stockholm for a year or so, playing beautifully and then disappearing. Unsurprisingly, he left very few recordings, particularly of his early US career, which makes this collection, recorded on the West Coast, particularly valuable.

Surrounded by capable West Coasters, on The Brew Moore Quintet his Lester Young inspired tenor delivers glorious ballad playing on Fools Rush In, and an affectingly direct I Want a Little Girl. And he swings mightily through I Cant Believe That Youre In Love with Me, Tea for Two and Five Planets in Leo. On Brew Moore, made with another Lesterian tenor, Harold Wylie, he remains the star of the show and their evident compatibility enlivens the exchanges on Edisons Lamp, the jaunty Rhode Island Red and Marna Moves. Both albums benefit from accomplished drummers, Gus Gustafson on the first and John Markham on the second.