Also known as
Blues A La Carte
, this Vee Jay disc has tenor-saxophonist
Wayne Shorter's
first session as a leader and it shows that, even at this early stage,
Shorter
was far along toward developing his own sound. Teamed up with trumpeter
Lee Morgan
, pianist
Wynton Kelly
, bassist
Paul Chambers
and drummer
Jimmy Cobb
, the six selections (five of which are
originals) capture the young tenor shortly after he joined
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
. The music is essentially hard bop and, although none of these
tunes caught on, the music is quite enjoyable. A special treat is the one standard of the date, a swinging version of
"Mack The Knife."
~ Scott Yanow