Destination Out

Destination…Out! seems to pick up right where Jackie McLean's preceding release, One Step Beyond, left off, even though McLean had recorded a few albums in between that wouldn't appear until years later. Here, McLean continues to employ the potent powers of trombone maverick Grachan Moncur III and vibraphone poet Bobby Hutcherson, moving ever further toward the avant-garde while retaining a hint of McLean's hard-bop history. The Moncur-penned "Love and Hate" opens the album on a moody, contemplative note, giving all the musicians plenty of room to make their impressionistic statements. The quirky, angular, and appropriately named "Esoteric" frames the band's conversational solos with an almost perverse stop-time rhythmic figure. But even when the tempo picks up and the groove gets swinging on "Kahlil the Prophet" and "Riff Raff," it's anything but a standard bop-based blowing session. Whether he's leaning fearlessly forward into the future of jazz or allowing for a bit of bluesy ballast, McLean studiously avoids slipping into a comfort zone.