Maggie's Back In Town!!

A contemporary of Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee (1918-1987) left an indelible mark on the history of modern jazz as it developed in the 1940s. He was the first important post-swing-style (i.e., bebop) trumpeter after Gillespie himself. Despite the fact that in 1949 he had won first place in the trumpet category of the Down Beat Readers Poll, he fell into a decline that kept him in almost total obscurity through the 1950s. It was a period that was probably necessary for McGhee to achieve real musical maturity.

Just in time for summer comes this reissue featuring the criminally unsung Howard McGhee, the dexterous bebop trumpeter who's frequently compared to greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. Maggie's Back in Town!! (Maggie was McGhee's nickname), captures the musician's triumphant return to music in 1961. AllMusic rates the album as, "McGhee's finest recording of the period." He overachieves in rhythmic fluidity, a through line that's   particularly potent in seemingly carefree songs such as "Sunset Eyes" and the title track.

This new edition, released as part of the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series, features (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Bernie Grundman and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP, and presented in a Stoughton Printing tip-on jacket.