Requisites

The Blues And The Abstract Blues is an album by jazz composer/arranger and saxophonist Oliver Nelson recorded in 1961 for the Impulse label. Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineering, Chuck Stewart took the photograph and Pete Turner designed the cover.

The albums length is a mere 36 minute and 33 seconds long but remains Nelson’s most acclaimed album. It is an exploration of the mood and structure of the blues, though only some of the tracks are structured in the conventional 12-bar blues form.

All the songs are composed by Nelson Stolen Moments, Hoe-Down, Cascades, Yearnin’, Butch and Butch and Teenie’s Blues. The musicians on the session were Oliver Nelson on alto and tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on flute and alto saxophone, George Barrow on baritone saxophone, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes.

The most famous composition from the album, Stolen Moments, is also his most recorded and performed, both instrumental and vocal, by numerous artists such as Phil Woods, J.J. Johnson, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Frank Zappa, Mark Murphy, Ahmad Jamal, Booker Ervin, New York Voices, the United Future Organization and the Turtle Island Quartet, to name just a few.

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