Kenny Burrell‘s classic 1959 live album On View At The Five Spot Cafe is receiving a new expanded rerelease. The Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of On View At The Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters features six previously unreleased tracks across its 3 LPs. Burrell’s frequent collaborators of the era’s performances are also captured on this set. Burrell’s band consists of Art Blakey on drums, Tina Brooks on tenor saxophone, Roland Hanna and Bobby Timmons on piano, and Ben Tucker on bass, with Burrell of course taking the lead on jazz guitar.
Beyond the new tracks, the 3 LP set also features a bevy of new editorial materials, including unearthed photos from Francis Wolff, an essay by Syd Schwartz, and a new interview with Burrell by Don Was. The set is also available in a 2-CD format.
Born in Detroit, Burrell moved to New York City in the 1950s to pursue his jazz career. Before long, he recorded his first album as a bandlander for Blue Note Records (the imprint responsible for On View at the Five Spot Cafe as well) after meeting label president Alfred Lion. At the time, Burrell was still working odd jobs around the city. “So he gave me this advance and I was so happy, I went to the store and got some groceries,” Burrell recalled in a 2010 interview with the Smithsonian. “I remember getting some hotdogs and some beans…”
Once he joined Blue Note, though, his career moved quickly. Four years later, On View At The Five Spot Cafe became Burrell’s fourth album with Blue Note as bandleader, and his ninth overall. Over the next six decades, Burrell released dozens more albums, and collaborated with fellow musical greats like Chet Baker, Quincy Jones, and Aretha Franklin. In the 1970s, the artist left New York for Los Angeles, where he still serves as the Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School Of Music. With such a long and celebrated career, people are still finding new recordings from Burrell—and some of them are here on On View at the Five Spot Cafe: The Complete Masters.
Order Kenny Burrell’s On View At The Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters now.