Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition, 180g All-Analog Stereo LP

This pressing belongs to Blue Note's Classic Vinyl series. It is an all-analog stereo reissue that Kevin Gray mastered from the original master tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal. Tracking Angle's review reports that Gray cut it at his Cohearent studio. The labels and runout reference the original stereo catalog number, BST 84170.

Art Blakey brought a sextet into Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on February 10, 1964, with Alfred Lion producing. Wayne Shorter played tenor saxophone, Freddie Hubbard trumpet, Curtis Fuller trombone, Cedar Walton piano and Reggie Workman bass. It was the band's first Blue Note date in more than two years, and the record was originally titled Free Fall. Blue Note issued it in July 1965. This lineup held together only until March 1964, when Lee Morgan returned in Hubbard's place.

Shorter wrote the two pieces on side one: the eleven-minute title track and "Hammer Head." Hubbard's "The Core" is dedicated to the Congress of Racial Equality. The album closes with Clare Fischer's bossa nova-tinged "Pensativa," arranged by Hubbard after he heard it played on piano at a gig on Long Island. Not everything from the day made the record. Lion stopped a second take of the title track when Blakey's drums broke, and attempts at Shorter's "Eva" and two vocal numbers by Wellington Blakey produced no usable takes.

In 2026 the album reached No. 22 on the UK Official Jazz & Blues Albums chart.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Free For All
2. Hammer Head

Side B

1. The Core
2. Pensativa

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Last updated: 2/6/26

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Last updated: 2/6/26