I recently skipped over a later 70s item in a bin that looked cheezy (probably Steve Gadd was on it or something) but recently acquired and have very much enjoyed [Fortune's] first record as a leader (from '75) called Awakening on A&M's not-half-bad Horizon imprint. It's a very nice but pretty straight-ahead set with Kenny Barron, Reggie Workman, Billy Hart and others - he's a fine player and if it had come out 10 years earlier on Blue Note, he might have a higher profile (he does have some Blue Note releases I haven't heard). He played first with Mongo Santamaria, then with McCoy Tyner (Woody Shaw was also in the group at that point), and squeezed in a stint with Buddy Rich (!) before joining Miles for the Agharta/Pangea freakout, plus he played on several of those intruiging if not quite great early 70s Roy Ayers records. [BB]

Fortune is the last important stylistic innovator on the altosaxophone!!..both rythmically and harmonically..
[j0n klette]