Essential Works 1960-1962

Coleman Leslie McCann, known as Les McCann, is arguably the most soulful jazz pianist of the sixties. All you have to do to be convinced of this is to go and listen to him, all business ceasing, with Eddie Harris, in concert in Montreux, on June 21, 1969. This recording is a monument in the history of soul jazz.

But before this concert, the trio of Les McCann with Herbie Lewis and Ron Jefferson, imposed a new style characterized by joy and pleasure, to play, to groove, to listen. Impossible in a Les McCann concert not to participate in his joy, in his desire to share, impossible not to beat time.

The recordings of this album from 1960 to 1962 are a turning point which participates in the swing of jazz into a new world. If today, the world of jazz includes all soul music, it is because some musicians like Les McCann naturally, in the early sixties, abolished borders and classifications.