Tonight's Jazz feature is a wonderful recording that was meant for private use. It was recorded by Dave Quarin, a great Vancouver saxophonist who also ran one of Vancouver's finest Jazz clubs: The Cellar. The original Cellar was in existence from 1955 to 1963 and run as a co-operative venture by musicians and artists. The staff was volunteer and only the musicians were paid. Local players were featured and at times the club brought in name players. Such was the case with our Jazz Feature. The great tenor saxophonist, Harold Land took over a wonderful band that had just backed up Sonny Rollins for two weeks in San Francisco and brought them to Vancouver in November 1958. The music was some of the best Jazz that I ever heard as I was there in Nov. 1958....I had just moved to Vancouver and was still in High School but I witnessed the music for three of the four nights they were here. The music was a powerful and distant memory until the tapes of several tunes made the rounds of musicians and eventually ended up at Lonehill Records where all the tunes were collated on a single 80 minute CD with some of the profits of the sales going to the Harold Land Estate.
The music is powerful and strong and all of these men are at their creative peak: Harold Land, the leader on tenor saxophone, the legendary Elmo Hope on piano, Scott LaFaro on bass, who eventually made history with Bill Evans and the fine dynamic drumming of Lennie McBrowne complete this incredible quartet. Only two long tunes will make up a complete set: the standard, 'Just Friends' and the Charlie Parker blues called 'Big Foot' plus a short version of the band's theme, Dameron's 'The Scene is Clean'. Powerful music from a legendary band at a now legendary club.