The Six - The 6 Complete Recordings 1954-1956 (2022)

This CD set includes a 20-page booklet with an essay by the producer, photos, illustrations, detailed personnel, recording dates, and the original liner notes from the albums.

The Six made their first appearance in 1954 at Jimmy Ryan’s, the New York club located on 52nd Street. The group was the brainchild of clarinetist and saxophonist Bob Wilber, Sidney Bechet protégé and leader of the Wildcats, a Dixieland group he put together while he was in Scarsdale High in 1946. He would later go on to study with Lenny Tristano and Leon Russianoff.

Wilber and two of his former Wildcats bandmates —trumpeter Johnny Glasel and drummer Ed Phyfe— joined three newcomers —pianist Tommy Goodman, trombonist Porky Cohen, and bassist Bob Petersen and became The Six. Right from the start, their credo was to play without regard to the restrictions of schools or styles. And as a unit, they were a decidedly cooperative organization, with no one member being the leader.

After The Six released their first album for producer Norman Granz’s Norgran label, Nat Hentoff gave it high praise in his 5-star review of Down Beat: “There is no group in jazz like it —its six solidly trained and experienced members are extraordinary at ease in all manner of jazz idioms, and they’re not afraid to let their emotions burst forth uninhibitedly.”

In the summer of 1955, Bob Hammer, Sonny Truitt, and Bill Britto replaced Goodman, Cohen, and Petersen. With the new line-up he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival and recorded two more excellent albums, this time on the Bethlehem label, the second of which had Jackie Moffit on drums. The group disbanded shortly afterwards.

All three albums of The Six are included on this compilation, and it’s worth noting for collectors that the 10-inch Norgran is being reissued here on CD for the first time. As one New York jazz observer characterized The Six: “This is one band that can make a hot Vs. cool album all by itself.”

—Jordi Pujol