Collaboration: West

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Originally recorded in 1953 during the vibraphonist's highly productive trip to California, this ambitious session firmly aligns the East Coast modernist with the intellectual wing of the West Coast scene. The highly angular, intensely arranged compositions challenge the ensemble—featuring Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre—to navigate complex harmonic structures that aggressively push the boundaries of conventional bop. The fiercely advanced, conceptually dense project stands as a testament to early Third Stream experimentation.