Review: Vinyl Reissue of Tommy Flanagan's 'The Cats'

With a quartet or his own simple, appealing tunes and one Gershwin classic propped on his piano, Tommy Flanagan led the session that produced his second album on April 18, 1957. However, he ceded credit to the one-off ensemble he put together for the occasion, which is probably what ones does when playing with such luminaries as Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. Yet The Cats often is very much Flanagan's show. His searching, autumnal keys receive soft support from drummer Louis Hayes and bassist Doug Watkins on Gershwin's "How Long Has This Been Going On" while the rest sit it out. When the whole band joins in, which they do for the rest of these sides, they most definitely play as a very organized ensemble, Coltrane's melodic, tonally complex harmonies with trumpeter Idrees Sulieman providing much of the tangy flavor. 

The rhythmic variations among the numbers is what keeps The Cats eclectic and interesting, as the combo barrels through the Mingus-like "Minor Mishap", draws back everything for "How Long Has This Been Going On", gets rhythmically playful with "Eclypso", eases into "Solacium", and alternately skates and lurches through "Tommy's Tune", on which Burrell gets off some of his slickest licks. 

Originally released in late 1959, long after its recording date, The Cats has gotten several re-releases throughout the years, but I don't doubt that you'd be hard-pressed to hunt down a tastier one than the AAA-mastered edition that is now joining Craft Recordings' "Original Jazz Classics" series. The series has a pretty powerful track recorded of excellence, and this beautifully detailed, incredibly present piece of audio on perfectly flat, perfectly silent 180-gram vinyl maintains that record impeccably.