It probably wouldn’t be too difficult to find out what Barack Obama ate for dinner last Wednesday. That’s how powerful and all inclusive the internet is at this point. Possessing the ability to so comb over any individual’s personal life, though, makes the fact that finding any information – beyond cursory overviews – on Jimmy Woods is infuriating. Knowing about that man would hopefully be more worthwhile than taking a peak at Obama’s lunch menu.

What I was able to dig up, though, really only places Woods, an alto sax player, in music during the fifties and early sixties. During that earlier decade, he worked out some RnB stuff just prior to doing a stint in the military. After returning, Woods found work with Chico Hamilton for a while before recording two dates as a leader during the early sixties.

We’ll get to those albums in a moment, but Woods performing along with Hamilton’s group should hint at this sax player’s ability. Hamilton was known for finding young players and sticking each in a prominent role, developing their skills and watching them leave for some semblance of success as a date leader. That cadre includes both Larry Corryell and Gabor Szabo, two of the most talented, yet relatively ignored guitarists of their era.

Woods was around a bit early to sit in with those players, but after earning a chance to lead a few dates, he was capacious of surrounding himself with a shockingly good line up – Elvin Jones on drums, Andrew Hill on piano and Harold Land on sax in addition to a few other players. When Conflict was recorded in 1963, Jones was still engaged with the Coltrane groups, which might explain why the drummer’s name is as prominently displayed on the jacket of the album as Woods. It’s not a surprising marketing device – and one that probably worked to sell a few records, but just a few.

Pulling in Hill on keys was a good sign as well seeing as he’s another unsung hero of the post bop age along with Bobby Hutcherson’s chosen sax man, Land.

With such a proven line up behind him, Woods goes in on an album still firmly of the bop era, but inserts enough personality as to make it a unique voyage. It actually ranks up there with any of Hill’s adventurous recordings where he was a date leader. But that’s not a fair point of reference since Hill’s almost as ignored as Woods. It’s a bummer, but the disc is just short of amazing.