Gil Mellé played baritone saxophone, but he was as much a writer as a player. Barry Ulanov, in the original notes, says he was still in his early twenties, and that he had a habit of building his bands around a guitarist: Tal Farlow on his first album, Lou Mecca after that, and now Joe Cinderella. Ulanov's case for the record is simple. Mellé found good, seasoned players and gave them thoughtful tunes, and the rest is the beat.
The date was Sunday, April 1, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder's in Hackensack, with Alfred Lion producing. Eddie Bert played trombone, Oscar Pettiford bass and Ed Thigpen drums. Six tunes came out of the day, four of them Mellé's and two standards, and all six went onto this record. Bert sits out two of the long ones, leaving Mellé with the guitar, bass and drums.
Side one opens with "The Set Break," a Mellé original. Ulanov puts it this way:
It's an up-tempo romp that comes out swinging and never stops – swinging, that is.
Barry Ulanov, original liner notes
"Weird Valley" is darker, a mysterious tune, though Ulanov points out that the swing never goes away. "The Arab Barber Blues," the quartet's first feature, runs past nine minutes, Mellé and Cinderella trading choruses over Pettiford and Thigpen.
Side two starts with the other quartet track, "Nice Question," and then slows right down for "Moonlight in Vermont." Ulanov says that on this one it is the sound that counts, ensemble or solo. The record closes with Jerome Kern's "Long Ago and Far Away."
The sleeve is Reid Miles's design with a Francis Wolff photograph.
Nat Hentoff gave it four stars in Down Beat at the end of the year. He liked the band, Thigpen and Bert especially, and wondered why Thigpen was not used on more record dates. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, much later on AllMusic, summed it up as "cerebral music that swings." This was Mellé's last session for Blue Note; by the time Hentoff's review ran, he had a Prestige record out as well.
