Charles Tolliver All Stars - Right Now... And Then

In the summer of 1968, a 26-year-old trumpeter walked into a New Jersey studio with a band most leaders twice his age would kill for. Paper Man is Charles Tolliver's debut as a leader, and he announced himself by surrounding his horn with a genuine who's who of the era: Gary Bartz on alto, Herbie Hancock at the piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The result is one of the great opening statements in modern jazz, the sound of a young composer already fully in command of his instrument and his ideas.

Recorded as this scene was pushing post-bop into wilder, more open territory, the music crackles with the freedom of late-'60s New York. Tolliver's playing is fluid and fearless, and the writing gives this all-star group room to stretch without ever losing the thread. Chambers and Carter lock into a restless, elastic pulse while Hancock and Bartz spar and converse overhead. Few debuts arrive this assured.

Tolliver would go on to co-found the legendary Strata-East label, the artist-owned imprint that became a byword for uncompromising Black music, and Paper Man is where that vision starts. It captures him at the exact moment his talent and his convictions came together.

This edition has been remixed by Tolliver himself to bring out the original intent of the sessions, with audio cut directly from the original analog tapes. Housed in a tip-on gatefold jacket and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, it's the definitive presentation of a landmark debut.