Junior Mance

Featuring: Junior Mance (p), Ray Brown, Israel Crosby (b), Lex Humphries, Buddy Smith (d)

“The clarity and freshness of ideas that Junior Mance projects on his instrument are refreshing in a jazz field cluttered with experimentalists and fumblers. Junior has the unusual ability to exude tremendous emotional qualities in his playing whilst still retaining the necessary and fundamental swinging condiments inherent in jazz. I truthfully believe that Junior Mance is a new direction as far as modern jazz pianists are concerned. His ideas have the continuity and diversification that lend a story-telling quality to his playing. I am sure that on listening to ‘JUNIOR’ you will enjoy everything that he has to say, and believe me, this young man has a bountiful amount yet unsaid.”

—Oscar Peterson (1959)

Tracklisting:

01. A Smooth One
02. Miss Jackie’s Delight
03. Whisper Not
04. Love for Sale
05. Lilacs in the Rain
06. Small Fry
07. Jubilation
08. Birk’s Works
09. Blues for Beverlee
10 Junior’s Tune
11. Hot Springs (*) Bonus Track
12. 111 East Ontario (*) Bonus Track

Personnel on #1-10:
Jr. Mance (p), Ray Brown (b), Lex Humphries (d). Recorded in New York City, on April 9, 1959.

Personnel on #11-12:
Jr. Mance (p), Israel Crosby (b), Buddy Smith (d). Recorded in Chicago, March 1954.