Tina Brooks – True Blue Blue Note BLP 4041 (1960)
No, it doesn’t break any new ground. But Tina Brooks’ True Blue is probably THE quintessential Blue Note hard bop album — though Sonny Clark‘s Cool Struttin’ deserves a mention in that conversation. I feel a little sorry for people drooling over Coltrane‘s mediocre Blue Train when they could spend their time with this beauty.