Tommy Flanagan – Overseas (Mono)

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When Jay Jay Johnson toured Sweden in the summer of 1957, his pianist, Tommy Flanagan, drew accolades. Flanagan’s playing on Miles Davis’ tunes such as “Vierd Blues,” and “In Your Own Sweet Way” had made hipper Swedes already aware of his abilities.

Among these were executives for Metronome Records, and the result was Flanagan’s first recording date under his own name, in Stockholm on Aug. 15, 1957. Flanagan later in his career became known as the “Jazz Poet,” an artist whose consummate lyricism and remarkably smooth swing feel have long captivated listeners. Happily, the complex, pliant lines, the rhythmic snap, and that great taste in tunes were already in place when the Detroit-born, Bud Powell-influenced Flanagan arrived in New York in the late 1950s. No wonder he soon played and/or recorded with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, and others.

This choice album — Flanagan’s first — was made in Sweden while the pianist was touring with Johnson’s quintet, which included bassist Wilbur Little and drummer Elvin Jones. The appealing program boasts Billy Strayhorn’s lulling “Chelsea Bridge,” Charlie Parker’s lively “Relaxin’ at Camarillo,” the crafty original “Eclypso” — part calypso, part swing — a blues, and two numbers dedicated to Swedish climes.