1956 The Kenny Drew Quartet “Talkin’ & Walkin’ With The Kenny Drew Quartet”

 After yesterday’s Art Pepper, and Larry Marable last week, more Jazz: West! And no, this isn’t your favorite Bennie Green album! Or Catherine Keener film! It’s straight Cool Bop just as you would expect from the year, label, geography, and sidemen! Like for instance Joe Maini, the best alto and tenor you’ve never heard of, mainly because he died playing Russian Roulette like Christopher Walken in “The Deer Hunter”. Or at least that’s the story. But he’s got a lot of style and interesting phrasing despite the melancholy bio, and Marable + Leroy Vinnegar is a terrific rhythm section. Six dynamite Drew originals plus an Ellington and the obligatory Jerome Kern/Johnny Mercer tossed in for Hollywood juke laughs. This is definitely an obscure side, but not deservedly. In fact, if you measured the quality of a record strictly by the degree to which it fully delivers on its premise, it’s a grail! You can practically taste 1956! For cool bop, this burns, and Maini really was a pretty stellar player based on his tiny discography, very much in the Sonny Criss vein, which makes this sort of essential action. TOP!