Like two of his other three albums,
Tina Brooks
' final session as a leader (in March 1961) was sequenced and prepared for release, but remained on the shelves until well after the tenor's tragically early death. That's why the title of
The Waiting Game
is not only apt, but sadly poignant. Despite
Blue Note
's reservations at the time,
Brooks
' output for the label was uniformly strong, demonstrating his skills as a smooth, graceful soloist and a composer of considerable dexterity within the
hard bop
idiom. Swinging and bluesy, yet sophisticated and refined,
upholds the high standard
set with his previous sessions.
is especially fine on his minor-key compositions, such as
"Talkin' About"
and
"Dhyana,"
which allow his streak of melancholy romanticism to emerge (as does the lone cover here, the
Tony Bennett
hit
"Stranger in Paradise"
). With its hints of Eastern modalities,
"David the King"
is perhaps the most challenging piece here; in fact, it had been attempted without success at the
Back to the Tracks
sessions.
sounds especially searching on the album-closing title cut, and pianist
Kenny Drew
and trumpeter
Johnny Coles
contribute some long, fluid lines of their own.
Hard bop
fans will find
just as necessary as
' other albums. Not counting the out-of-print
Mosaic
box,
was first issued as its own entity in 1999 in Japan, and was finally released in the U.S. in October 2002. ~ Steve Huey