Hal McKusick - Cross Section: Saxes (1959/2004)

Hal McKusick's final recording as a leader mixes three separate sessions with contributions by four great arrangers. The cast of musicians varies from onedate to the next, although McKusick and pianist Bill Evans are present on every track, while Art Farmer, Milt Hinton, and Barry Galbraith also make strong impressions. This music has held up extremely well over the decades, especially George Russell's forward-thinking treatment of "You're My Thrill" and his sauntering, somewhat atonal, blues "Stratusphunk." Also valuable are the charts by Jimmy Giuffre, George Handy, and Ernie Wilkins. The blend of the saxophones in Handy's upbeat "The Last Day of Fall" almost sound like an accordion. Most of this music was reissued on the CD Now's the Time (1957-1958), although two brilliant arrangements by Jimmy Giuffre ("Yesterdays" and his own "Sing Song") were, unfortunately, omitted from that compilation, making it worth the effort to search for this elusive Decca LP.