Amilisom Best album name ever.

"The Cats." Its the album you know you want to own just for the sake of being able to say you "got 'The Cats'," in which as a result you will no longer have any doubt in your mind that you are, in fact, cool. The question of whether the album is good or not is entirely irrelevant. If somehow you don't seem to be in awe of the greatness of "The Cats" and insist on knowing what the music itself is like regardless of the album title, then a review of sorts will suffice.

"The Cats" is a hard bop album credited to tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and Pianist Tommy Flanagan. Also included in the lineup are Idrees Sulieman on trumpet and Kenny Burrell on guitar. The four of them take solos on every track with the exception of "How Long Has This Been Going On?" which features Tommy Flanagan in a piano trio with Doug Watkins and Louis Hayes. The solos themselves are certainly the works of professionals, but compared to other albums this particular one doesn't have many memorable moments or what I would consider masterwork solos. Otherwise the music isn't bad, as I have certainly enjoyed listening to this at times.

It would do to mention that there is an incredible moment in the middle of Flanagan's solo in Solacium where he quotes the beginning of Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu.

6.5/10, rounded up