"Au Privave" is a Charlie Parker blues composition that serves as the closing track on Clifford Jordan's 1960 Riverside album Spellbound. The performance features extended solos from all three melodic voices in the quartet at a blistering tempo. Bassist Spanky DeBrest opens with an impressive six-chorus bass solo over the 12-bar blues in F, demonstrating the melodic inventiveness and rhythmic drive that earned him a place among the era's respected bassists. Jordan follows with a massive fourteen-chorus tenor saxophone solo, a tour de force of blues improvisation that builds with relentless logic from simple melodic ideas to complex harmonic explorations. Cedar Walton closes the solo sequence with ten piano choruses that match the intensity of his bandmates. The choice of a Parker composition pays homage to the bebop tradition from which Jordan's style grew, while the extended solo format allows each musician to develop comprehensive improvisational statements. Albert Heath's drumming propels the performance with the energy and responsiveness that the tempo demands. Au Privave stands as the album's most ambitious performance, a marathon of collective improvisation.
