Clifford Jordan's quintet closes the album Cliff Craft with a blazing rendition of Charlie Parker's "Anthropology," a bebop classic built on the chord changes of George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." At a tempo exceeding 240 beats per minute, the 32-bar AABA form becomes a proving ground for each soloist's technical command and improvisational fluency. Art Farmer opens with two trumpet choruses of dazzling precision, his lines threading through the rapid chord changes with the ease that made him one of the most admired brass players in jazz. Jordan follows with five extended tenor saxophone choruses that build in intensity and complexity, his solo revealing both his debt to the bebop tradition and his own emerging voice within it. Sonny Clark contributes two piano choruses that swing with effortless momentum, his bebop vocabulary delivered with characteristic clarity and harmonic sophistication. George Tucker and Louis Hayes provide a propulsive rhythmic foundation that never wavers despite the demanding tempo. The choice of "Anthropology" as the album's closing track is a fitting statement of purpose, placing Jordan's quintet squarely within the lineage of Parker and the bebop revolution while demonstrating their ability to hold their own with the most challenging repertoire in the jazz tradition.
