Julius Watkins Sextet Vols. 1 & 2
You can count notable French horn players in jazz on one hand. Watkins is perhaps the first significant contributor, and he remains one of the best: inventive, no problem hanging on with hard-bop tempos, and, most importantly, able to overcome the intonation problems that plague the tangled horn. This Blue Note goodie collects onto a single disc two sought-after 10-inch EPs he made in 1954 and 1955. They're immaculate demonstrations of Watkins's facility and much more, setting the brassman next to the tenor saxes ofFrank Foster(in a group with bop iconKenny Clarkeon drums) andHank Mobley(in a group withArt Blakey). Lean, agile bassist Oscar Pettiford is always a treat, and these recordings are no exception. However, the weird conventions of jazz engineers crop up on ballads like "I Have Known" and the intro to Watkins's peppy, West Coast-oriented "Garden Delights"--for some reason, gobs of echo are ladled onto the French horn, as if it needed a touch up. --John Corbett