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Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown

By Chris May
January 31, 2024
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One of the most egregiously underestimated albums in jazz history, alto saxophonist

Arthur Blythe

saxophone, alto
1940 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Arthur Blythe's Lenox Avenue Breakdown was released on vinyl by Columbia in 1979 and on CD by Columbia (Japan) in 1995 and Koch Jazz in 1998. That's it bar a dodgy fourfer. Blythe fronts a septet completed by flautist

James Newton

flute
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">James Newton, tubaist

Bob Stewart

tuba
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Stewart, guitarist

James Blood Ulmer

guitar
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">James Blood Ulmer, bassist

Cecil McBee

bass
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Cecil McBee, drummer

Jack DeJohnette

drums
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack DeJohnette and percussionist Guillermo Franco. Producer is Bob Thiele. The title track has the most sui generis tuba solo ever recorded (until, perhaps, London's

Theon Cross

tuba

" data-original-title="" title="">Theon Cross came along in the 2010s). The album is a stone delight from start to finish.

Contact Chris May on All About Jazz.
Chris May is a senior editor of All About Jazz. He was previously the editor of the pioneering magazine Black Music & Jazz Review, and more recently editor of the style / culture / history magazine Jocks & Nerds.

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