The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley ( from Music Matters ), a.k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's 1960s output ran the gamut from hard bop to the avant-garde with his 1964 post-bop dates It's Time! and Action splitting the difference. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver had appeared alongside McLean in the horn frontline on It's Time! and returned once again for Action the next month, with McLean opting for Bobby Hutcherson's vibraphone in place of piano, as well as Cecil McBee on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The albums leaps out of the gate with McLean's searing title track followed by two pensive Tolliver originals: "Plight" and "Wrong Handle." On a highly original version of the standard "I Hear a Rhapsody" the melody is answered by discordant interjections from the horns before the album comes to a close with McLean's grooving minor key piece "Hootnan."

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