Alfred Lion at Blue Note liked to record lots of material by his chosen artists in a short space of time, and not too long after Kenny Burrell’s arrival in New York from his native Detroit that’s exactly what happened to him. Hearing his May 1956 solo recording of ‘But Not For Me’ on this 2CD set, you can see why. He’s just a total guitarist, fearless, brilliant, harmonically assured and ready for anything. So what we have here is two albums derived from seven days of intense recording in 1956, and the fruits of a day-long session in 1958. The surrounding artists are the Blue Note repertory company of the day, Kenny Dorham shining on his own ‘Mexico City’, Tommy Flanagan (also from Detroit) sparkling on the retro numbers ‘Get Happy’ and ‘Moten Swing’, plus Oscar Pettiford and Frank Foster trading bluesy phrases on ‘Now See How You Are’. Personally, the horn-less session with Flanagan, Chambers, Clarke and Candido from Introducing Kenny Burrell is the highlight as it gives the guitarist most room to shine. And shine he does, whether soloing over the band, or combining in dialogue with Flanagan’s urbane piano. It’s just a relaxed, swinging delight from top to tail. The 1958 two-volume Blue Lights session (after a digression on the Prestige label) finds Kenny showing his credentials as a blues-inflected player. The daringly slow tempo of his own ‘Yes Baby’ allows his invention to unfold over a big canvas, the track running over 11 minutes, with Junior Cook and Tina Brooks (and the lesser-known trumpeter Louis Smith) also stretching out, and this is the hallmark for this full day of inventive jamming. 1950s (just) post-bop playing doesn’t come any better than this.