Let Freedom Ring

Let Freedom Ring
Studio album by Jackie McLean
Released 1962
Recorded March 19, 1962
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre Jazz
Length 38:16
Label Blue Note
BST 84106
Producer Alfred Lion
Jackie McLean chronology
A Fickle Sonance
(1961)		 Let Freedom Ring
(1962)		 Tippin' the Scales''
(1962)

Let Freedom Ring is an album by jazz saxophonist Jackie McLean, recorded in 1962 and released on Blue Note.

McLean wrote three of the four compositions. "Melody for Melonae" is dedicated to his daughter (as was an earlier composition, "Little Melonae"), and appeared as "Melanie" on Matador, a later recording that he made with Kenny Dorham. The slower-tempo performance on Let Freedom Ring is notable as being the first time that McLean used "provocative upper-register screams".[1] "Rene" and "Omega" are both blues-related pieces, the former with a standard twelve-bar structure and harmonies, the latter more abstract and modal. The one non-McLean track is Bud Powell's ballad, "I'll Keep Loving You"

Allmusic has given the album a rating of five stars (of a possible five).[2] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gives Let Freedom Ring four out of four stars, and includes the album in a selected "Core Collection."[3]

Track listing

  1. "Melody for Melonae" (McLean) - 13:24
  2. "I'll Keep Loving You" (Powell) - 6:18
  3. "Rene" (McLean) - 10:03
  4. "Omega" (McLean) - 8:31

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Bob Blumenthal's liner notes to the 2003 RVG Edition.
  2. ^ Let Freedom Ring at Allmusic
  3. ^ Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). New York: Penguin. pp. 979–980. ISBN 978-0-14-103401-0.