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Sound Pieces

I first encountered Oliver Nelson's name when I began more systematically exploring '50s & '60s jazz about 10-12 years ago. His album The Blues and the Abstract Truth was frequently mentioned as among the best of that era, and it is undoubtedly an excellent record, as are the other albums he recorded with Eric Dolphy I discovered soon afterwards: Screamin' The Blues and Straight Ahead. I had, however, unknowingly heard his handiwork long before that, in his capacity as composer of the theme to the '70s TV sensation The Six Million Dollar Man.

More recently I looked up some of his later albums on YouTube and very much enjoyed what I heard, though it was disheartening that most of them seemed difficult or expensive to obtain. Being particularly keen to get hold of his 1966 album Sound Pieces, I paid up something approaching £20 (a high price for a CD by my miserly standards) for a copy from an ebay seller. It's a recording that showcases several of Nelson's many talents - as musician, composer, bandleader and arranger.

As a musician he restricts himself here to playing the soprano saxophone, when he'd been better-known as a tenor player. The opening three tracks (all Nelson originals) are performed by a 20-piece band, allowing him to don his arranger's and bandleader's hats, while the remaining tracks are quartet pieces with Nelson joined by pianist Steve Kuhn, Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on drums. Kuhn's name was new to me, but he's far from out of his depth in this august company. My favourite piece on the album is 'Patterns', where Nelson shines especially brightly as a soloist.

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