AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Analogue Productions - APRJ 7048 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - Mono

AAA 100% Analogue - Mastered By Kevin Gray at Acoustech Mastering

Pressed at QRP - Limited Edition - Prestige 7048

Mastered by  Kevin Gray  at AcousTech Mastering from the Orginal Mono Master Tapes  

"During his avant-garde period in the early 60s McLean dismissed his earlier recordings, but whatever impossible standards he was setting for himself, his playing on them still sounds fresh, creative, and inspired... The only way McLean's bright, biting sound was ever heard to better advantage was live." - Duck Baker, The Absolute Sound, 3.5 Music, 5/5 Sonics 

This LP for Prestige helped establish alto sax giant McLean on the jazz scene. He was joined by trumpeter Donald Byrd (who shines with the altoist on Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation”) and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley (also bopping hard on the tune), in a date solidified by McLean’s rhythm section: Mal Waldron on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. McLean also plays ballads, including Waldron’s sublime tune “Abstraction.” Writing in the original notes, Ira Gitler said, ”Jackie McLean is musically coming of age. His playing, out of Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, has become a personalized, more individual voice in 1956 and he has not lost any of the basic emotion, swinging qualities that help his style live up to the second syllable of his last name so well.”

In 1956 Jackie McLean was only beginning to assert himself as a true individualist on the alto saxophone, exploring the lime-flavored microtones of his instrument that purists or the misinformed perceived as being off-key or out of tune. 4, 5 and 6 presents McLean's quartet on half the date, and tunes with an expanded quintet, and one sextet track -- thus the title. Mal Waldron, himself an unconventional pianist willing to explore different sizings and shadings of progressive jazz, is a wonderful complement for McLean's notions, with bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Art Taylor the impervious team everyone wanted for his rhythm section at the time.

 The quartet versions of "Sentimental Journey," "Why Was I Born?," and "When I Fall in Love" range from totally bluesy, to hard bop ribald, to pensive and hopeful, respectively. These are three great examples of McLean attempting to make the tunes his own, adding a flattened, self-effaced, almost grainy-faced texture to the music without concern for the perfectness of the melody. Donald Byrd joins the fray on his easygoing bopper "Contour," where complex is made simple and enjoyable, while Hank Mobley puts his tenor sax to the test on the lone and lengthy sextet track, a rousing version of Charlie Parker's risk-laden "Confirmation." It's Waldron's haunting ballad "Abstraction," with Byrd and McLean's quick replies, faint and dour, that somewhat illuminates the darker side. As a stand-alone recording, 4, 5 and 6 does not break barriers, but does foreshadow the future of McLean as an innovative musician in an all-too-purist mainstream jazz world.

Part of the ultimate audiophile Prestige stereo reissue series from Analogue Productions featuring 25 of the most collectible, rarest, most audiophile-sounding Rudy Van Gelder recordings ever made! 

All titles will be mastered from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray. 

The 200g LPs will be cut at 33rpm at the  state-of-the-art pressing plant, Quality Record Pressings, plated by Gary Salstrom.

Deep groove label pressings, tip-on jackets on thick cardboard stock. 

• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Plated by Gary Salstrom
• Mastered by Kevin Gray
• Mono

Jackie McLean, alto sax
Mal Waldron, piano
Doug Watkins, bass
Art Taylor, drums
Donald Byrd, trumpet (3,4,6)
Hank Mobley, tenor sax (4)

Side One:
1. Sentimental Journey
2. Why Was I Born?
3. When I Fall In Love
Side Two:
4. Contour
5. Abstraction
6. Confirmation