This is some of the hottest music I've listened to in quite a while. I've always loved Jackie McLean's music but I have to plead ignorance about most of his post- Blue Note output. I've read that in his later years, his teaching duties took him away from performing, and even that his playing suffered as a result. On The Jackie Mac Attack Live, recorded at a jazz club in Belgium in 1992, "attack" is the operative word. From the first notes of Cyclical, the first track, McLean is burning. No matter what the tune or tempo, he really chews up the music . Ably abetted by the wonderfully named South Africa Pianist Idris Hotep Galeta, with strong support from the fine drummer Carl Allen (I heard him a couple of years ago with the Mack Avenue All Stars) and bassist Nat Reeves, this is a no BS, hard-charging recording from start to finish. Note: The CD I bought was billed as "new," but I had serious playback issue on a couple of tracks; when I looked at the disk, it looked worse than a lot of used CDs I've seen. Just sayin...For a taste, here's Minor March.
