This was a wonderful swinging little band. Like a West Coast answer to the East's Horace Silver Quintet or The Jazz Messengers. McBrowne himself was a drummer who studied with Max Roach, played a lot like Art Blakey and who worked with a variety of leaders including Sonny Rollins, Paul Bley, Booker Ervin, Randy Weston, even Thelonious Monk. A quintessential hard bopper, but whose solos were often strikingly melodic (check ‘Lazinka's Tune’). His 4 Souls group from 1959-61 recorded for, firstly, Dick Bock at Pacific Jazz (this includes some Elmo Hope arrangements) and then, on the second CD, for Riverside, with Cannonball Adderley as producer, though for some reason it sounds at times somewhat subdued in comparison. Maybe Herbie Lewis (later with Jackie McLean) was a much stronger bassist than Jimmy Bond. The group contains two excellent young musicians, who could have achieved greatness if they hadn't fallen victim to a ruinous heroin habit. Daniel Jackson's soulful edgy tenor is very much in the vein of his San Diego mentor, Harold Land and he is also a really talented writer, who contributed ten way-above-average originals to these dates. Jackson, who only died recently, never followed Land to LA, preferring to stay in San Diego, even though work was hard to come by. Donald Sleet, from the same city, achieved a certain amount of fame when he worked at The Lighthouse in LA. Very much in the tradition of Kenny Dorham, Miles, possibly even Freddie Webster, he sadly only made one LP All Members (long out of print) as a leader – for Riverside's Jazzland label, with Jimmy Heath as his front-line partner, with Wynton Kelly, Ron Carter and Jimmy Cobb in the rhythm section. Both players could have been really important. Pianist Trotter, ironically, went on to become a constantly-in-demand studio session man in LA. There are four bonus tracks with the band backing the relatively little-known Gloria Smyth, a tasteful singer with shades of Ella and Sarah Vaughan, who commanded the respect of many musicians. Altogether, an historical package you ought to hear.