The Jazz Modes The Rare Dawn Sessions (2-CD)

In the latter half of the 1950s, one of the most original groups around was Les Jazz Modes, which got its Gallic name because one of its co-leaders, Julius Watkins, played French horn, which gave the group its distinct texture. The other leader was tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, a veteran of the Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie bands. Musicians on this recording, pulled from the archives of Biograph Records, include Paul Chambers, Eileen Gilbert, Ron Jefferson, Gildo Mahones, Oscar Pettiford, Chano Pozo, Janet Putnum, Martin Rivera, Art Taylor and Paul West.