Back to the Tracks by Tina Brooks

Back to the Tracks is a hard bop album by tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks recorded in 1960 and released posthumously. The tracks first appeared in a Mosaic 12" LP box-set (MR4-106) entitled The Complete Blue Note Recordings of The Tina Brooks Quintets. The album was originally intended as BLP 4052, but, for some reason, it was shelved at the time. A Blue Note CD (purple cover, Blue Note 21737) appeared in 1998, then reissued in 2006 (green cover, BST 84052). Both editions are now out-of-print. A song recorded during the session, "David the King", was rejected since it "never made it to releasable quality". Said piece, however, made it to Brooks' final recording for Blue Note, The Waiting Game. It features performances by Brooks, Blue Mitchell, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. This group of musicians was also responsible for one of the sessions from the Jackie McLean album Jackie's Bag recorded a month earlier.