Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958

Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958
Live album by Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins
Released	1976
Recorded	October 1958
Venue	The Hillcrest Club, Los Angeles, California
Genre	Jazz
Length	32:05
Label	Inner City IC 1007
Paul Bley chronology
Solemn Meditation (1958) Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958 (1976) Coleman Classics Volume 1 (1958)

Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958 (originally released in 1970 by America Records as The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet) is a live album by pianist Paul Bley, saxophonist Ornette Coleman, trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Charlie Haden recorded in California in 1958 and released on the Inner City label in 1976.^[1] The album was the first live recording of Ornette Coleman, made shortly after he recorded his first album, Something Else!!!! and featuring the group (without Bley) that would soon record the Atlantic albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Change of the Century (1960).

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Christgau's Record Guide	A[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau rated the album an "A" on its release observing: "I have the feeling when I want people to understand what free jazz meant, this is what I'll play".^[6] The Allmusic reviewer wrote: "The recording quality is decent for the period, and avant-garde collectors will want to search for this pioneering effort".^[2] According to The Penguin Guide to Jazz: "This is clearly an important record and, technical difficulties aside, it should be in all modern collections. However, it isn't central to Bley's recorded output".^[4]

Track listing

All compositions by Ornette Coleman except as indicated

1. "Klactoveesedstene" (Charlie Parker) – 12:04
2. "I Remember Harlem" (Roy Eldridge) – 3:48
3. "The Blessing" – 9:35
4. "Free" – 5:39

Personnel

• Paul Bley – piano
• Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
• Don Cherry – cornet
• Charlie Haden – bass
• Billy Higgins – drums

References

1. Paul Bley catalog, accessed June 28, 2014
2. Yanow, S., Allmusic Review accessed June 28, 2014
3. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: B". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
4. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). London: Penguin. pp. [1]. ISBN 0141023279.
5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 27. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
6. Christgau, R., Chrisgau's Consumer Guide review, The Village Voice, November 1, 1976