js Mickey Tucker is one of those ‘best musician you may have never heard of’ kind of guys. Well known amongst fellow jazz musicians, Mickey is less known to the general public because he mostly worked as a sideman, albeit with some top names such as Art Blakey, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Phil Woods. Another factor working against Tucker was the fact that he never got with the whole commercial fusion/smooth jazz trip, and so he probably did not get much attention, or help, from the record labels. Much like Woody Shaw and Joanne Brackeen, Mickey played jazz straight through the 70s, but just like those two, his post bop was wild and energetic, sometimes hanging on the edge of pure mayhem. Released in 1977, when most fusion had run out of steam, “Sojourn” is a blast of hot swing rhythm in a modern stylle with plenty of intense solos to go around. Given the mundane state of affairs at that time, “Sojourn” was probably one of the best jazz albums of the year.

Side one opens with the jagged arrangement of the high octane, “Fast Train to Zurich”. This one recalls Eric Dolphy in the early 60s as the players hang on and try to ride a very up tempo rush of chord changes. Another side one highlight is the African groove of “Tunisian Festival”. Side two opens with a McCoy Tyner style modal jam and closes with some funky hard bop, one of the few medium tempo ensemble numbers on the album. In between these two you get an incredible solo piano piece which has Mickey mixing modern concert hall atonality with abstract blues and old school stride. Tucker was different from the popular 70s trio of Corea/Hancock/Jarret, he drew from a deeper well of some older methods, much like Jaki Byard or Sun Ra, and it would be no surprise if Tucker was an influence on the somewhat similarly oriented Matthew Shipp.

As mentioned earlier, “Sojourn” was probably one of the best jazz records of 1977, Herbie Hancock’s “VSOP” return to post bop came out that same year and look at how much attention that got. Mickey’s album is just as good, and in a rugged honest sort of way, maybe better. Too bad it was barely noticed, if at all.