Booker Little - Booker Little And Friend (1961/2014) [HDtracks]

Booker Little, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He appeared on a number of recordings, both as side-man and as leader. Little was closely associated with Max Roach, but also performed with John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy and was strongly influenced by Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown. This was Booker Little's last album, recorded shortly before his premature death at the age of 23.
It was his fourth session as a bandleader and spotlighted not only his mastery of the trumpet but his maturity as a composer and arranger. Included in Little's sextet is George Coleman on tenor saxophone and Pete La Roca on drums. A fitting legacy and reminder of what might have been. This album has also been released under the title Victory And Sorrow.
However, Booker Little is generally the top soloist on the harmonically advanced hard bop date and he is in peak form throughout although he would pass away on October 5 of that year. Of his six originals, 'Molotone Music' and 'Victory and Sorrow' are most memorable even if Little's beautiful playing on a quartet version of the date's one standard, 'If I Should Lose You', is actually the highpoint.