Plenty, Plenty Soul

Recorded in New York on January 5 and 7, 1957, this album finds vibraphonist Milt Jackson stepping outside the Modern Jazz Quartet to lead two different all-star sessions — one arranged by a young Quincy Jones with Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and Percy Heath, the other a tighter unit built around Lucky Thompson, Oscar Pettiford and Horace Silver, who plays on both dates. The record captured Jackson at the crest of the emerging soul-jazz movement, its bluesy, gospel-tinged themes and driving grooves reflecting the hard-bop-meets-blues sensibility Adderley and Silver were championing elsewhere in the era's jazz. Jackson had already established himself as the era's premier vibraphonist through his own quartet dates and ongoing MJQ work, and this session let him stretch into a bigger, funkier idiom outside that group's chamber-jazz restraint. Largely built on originals by Jackson and Jones, the material gave the horns room to blow over relaxed blues changes, and the chemistry between Jackson's crystalline vibes and Adderley's earthy alto became a highlight of the date. The record has long been cited as a high point of late-1950s soul jazz, prized for its unforced swing and the interplay of musicians who were each becoming leaders in their own right.