1962 · Album
Hipnosis
Recorded 1962 (six tracks) and 1967 (five tracks) · Blue Note Records · Released: 1978
Two Decades Late, Still Ahead
Music that was overlooked in its time, but stands easily alongside McLean's best Blue Note work.
Hipnosis exists because of what Blue Note Records chose not to do. Two separate sessions—one from 1962, one from 1967—sat in the vaults for years before anyone thought to release them together. When the album finally came out in 1978, it arrived as a two-fer in the US, bundling five tracks from the '67 date with six from '62. Japan got the standard treatment that same year, a cleaner package with just the later material. Either way, listeners were hearing something that had been deemed not quite ready for the world when it was fresh.
What makes this odd, given what's actually on the tape. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow gave it four stars and called the music "strongly influenced (but not derivative) of the avant-garde players," noting that despite being overlooked, these sessions matched the quality of McLean's better-known Blue Note recordings. The altoist was working through a style that wasn't quite fashionable at either moment—too modern for the straight-ahead crowd, too melodic for the free-jazz zealots. The result is accessible but uncompromising, which may explain why it spent so long in limbo.
Hipnosis matters mainly for fans already convinced by McLean's other work. It's neither his entry point nor his peak, but it fills a genuine gap. The music holds up because McLean knew what he wanted to do and did it cleanly, regardless of which decade the session tape said it came from. Sometimes the best recordings are the ones nobody rushed to release.
