The 1950s was the golden age of the recorded jam session. Although jams had been part of jazz since at least the 1920s, the rise of the Lp meant that in the 1950s recordings were no longer limited to just three minutes apiece. Whether it was the Norman Granz jam sessions and his live Jazz At The Philharmonic concerts, or a series of jam sessions led by Gene Ammons and Buck Clayton, musicians were finally free to stretch out and challenge each other on records.

Of all of the jams, Johnny Griffin's A Blowing Session has a special place in jazz history. It is the only time that Griffin, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley met up on record. Although they all played tenor, each of their sounds was distinctive and quite different from each other on this 1957 set. Griffin is a powerhouse, able to play very fast lines with passion and brilliance. Coltrane is a searching innovator, pushing ahead and constantly Coming up with new ideas.

Mobley, who could have been easily overshadowed by the other two, wisely chose to play the opposite of the other tenors, leaving more space and creating melodic lines that are full of subtle surprises. With trumpeter Lee Morgan also contributing some fiery ideas and the all-star rhythm section never letting the music coast, the three tenors created a jam session classic and one of the most exciting recordings of the decade.

This pressing is on SRX Vinyl. SRX stands for “Silent Running Xperience.” SRX is our own proprietary formula, conceived and developed by Rick Hashimoto of Record Technology and manufactured by TPC Plastics. Its noise floor is fathoms lower than any other vinyl we know of out there past or present. Records pressed with it look like normal black discs until you hold them up to the light and see that they are translucent and smoky, silvery gray in color. The near-perfect silence of SRX Vinyl virtually frees the music from groove noise and draws you further into the listening space, setting it in relief so distinct, full and spacious it’s nearly sculptural. You hear more of what’s on the original tapes, not only of the notes played on the instruments but the experience of the event itself. That's why we call it Silent Running Xperience.

Like all Music Matters Jazz releases, this is cut from the original analog tapes, mastered by Ron Rambach and Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, and pressed at Record Technologies Inc (RTI). The gorgeous gatefold jacket is from Stoughton Printing in City of Industry, California and includes exclusively licensed photos from the original session inside.

See more Johnny Griffin records here.