"Laconia" is a Clifford Jordan original that opens his 1957 album Cliff Craft for Blue Note Records, establishing the session's hard bop credentials with an inventive 44-bar AABA form in E-flat. Art Farmer leads the solo sequence with a trumpet chorus of characteristic elegance and melodic clarity, his warm tone and precise articulation setting a high standard. Sonny Clark follows with a piano chorus that showcases his sophisticated harmonic sense and rhythmic drive, his playing anchored in bebop tradition but touched with a lyrical quality all his own. Jordan takes the final and most extended solo with two commanding tenor saxophone choruses, his tone warm and full, his lines flowing with the unhurried confidence of a musician secure in his abilities. The composition's extended 44-bar form gives each soloist room to develop ideas beyond what a standard 32-bar tune would allow, and all three take full advantage of the expanded canvas. George Tucker and Louis Hayes form a tight, swinging rhythm section that propels the music forward without overshadowing the soloists. Cliff Craft was Jordan's second album as a leader, and tracks like "Laconia" demonstrate his growing maturity as both a composer and an improviser within the hard bop tradition.
