Reboot with Herbie Nichols: Four Classic Albums

The reboot continues with this double-disc British compilation of four albums recorded from 1955 to 1957 from the tragically underrecorded and underappreciated pianist Herbie Nichols.  I'd only heard of him because I'd read A.B. Spellman's Black Music: Four Lives and learned a little about this amazing musician and composer who died in 1963 at age 44.

This recording captures the creativity of his writing and the stunning technique and unusual structure of his piano playing.  Critic Leonard Feather wrote in the liners to the combined volumes of The Prophetic Herbie Nichols that "his technique made [Vladimir] Horowitz and [Art] Tatum seem like bumbing amateurs," which is leaning way too far in trying to get Nichols his due.  But, Nichols was a fantastic stylist and it is clear that the trio was the way to make the most of it.

There are stellar sidemen here, including Art Blakey, Max Roach, George Duvivier, Al McKibbon and Danny Richmond and the far-sighted Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records deserves accolades aplenty for recording Nichols when no one else cared.  Unfortunately, he died young and all but ignored, but these recordings are a testament to the phenomenal talent of Herbie Nichols.