Album: Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd Blue Note

Redd was a jobbing hard-bop pianist and composer blessed with, in bop terms, a heavenly ear for a "chewn".

This fabulous sesh from 1961 has seven gorgeous ones on it (plus a couple of alternate takes), a cooking rhythm section in Paul Chambers and Louis Hayes and a front line to die for: Jackie McLean on alto and Tina Brooks on tenor – reedy, snakey, rhythmic as the river and as East Coast-flat in intonation as a pair of saxophonists could ever aspire to be. Beautiful, if you like that sort of thing. Don't be scared, it's all blues and their derivatives and it'll swing you like a baby monkey.