Kenny Burrell was born in Detroit on July 31, 1931, into a family of guitar players. His oldest brother, Billy, went over to bass, and Kenny learned mostly on the bandstand next to him. Leonard Feather, in the original notes, sums up his schooling in one line:
The easiest way to learn and observe was to sit in on jobs with brother Billy.
Leonard Feather, original liner notes
He had only 18 months of classical lessons. Dizzy Gillespie used him on a Detroit job in 1951, which Feather counts as his first time on record, and in March 1955 Oscar Peterson sent for him to fill in for an ailing Herb Ellis. After a music degree from Wayne University he moved to New York. Feather thought Alfred Lion, who had already recorded Tal Farlow and Sal Salvador, the right man to present him. This was his first date as a leader.
There were two dates, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 29 and 30, 1956, at Van Gelder's in Hackensack. Tommy Flanagan, a friend from Detroit, played piano, Paul Chambers bass and Kenny Clarke drums. Candido, the conga player from Havana, sat in on most tunes. Nine tunes came out of the two days.
Side one opens with Harold Arlen's "This Time the Dream's on Me." Burrell states the melody, Candido takes the bridge, Flanagan has two choruses, and then Candido and Clarke trade fours and eights. "Fugue 'n' Blues" is the quartet without Candido: by Feather's account Chambers starts it, piano and guitar come in after him, and the tune changes key about a dozen times. On "Takeela" Candido opens on bongos. The title, Feather assures us, is a girl, not a drink.
Side two starts with "Delilah," Victor Young's theme from the film Samson and Delilah, with Candido well forward. "Rhythmorama" is Clarke and Candido alone, no guitar at all.
This should certainly rank as one of the outstanding sides of the year for drum fans.
Leonard Feather, original liner notes
"Blues for Skeeter," named for the guitarist Skeeter Best, closes the record with Burrell playing chords and a long solo from Chambers with the bow. Scott Yanow, writing for AllMusic and quoted by Wikipedia, said "Burrell displays what was already an immediately recognizable tone."
The sleeve is a Reid Miles design with a Francis Wolff photograph.
The day after the second date, Burrell was at the Cafe Bohemia with Kenny Dorham's band, on the night that became BLP 1524. The two tunes left over from Hackensack, "Get Happy" and "But Not for Me," went to Kenny Burrell Volume 2 (BLP 1543) in 1957.
