by Scott Yanow
Before he retired from music in 1960, pianist George Wallington led a series of excellent bop-based quintet albums. For this particular CD (a reissue of a date originally put out by New Jazz), Wallington heads a group featuring altoist Phil Woods, trumpeter Donald Byrd, bassist Teddy Kotick and drummer Nick Stabulas. With the exception of the standard &Indian Summer,& the repertoire is pretty obscure (with now-forgotten originals by Byrd, Woods and Mose Allison in addition to &Graduation Day&) but of a consistent high quality. The emphasis is on hard-swinging and this set should greatly please straightahead jazz fans.