The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings states Harold Land is an “underrated composer with a deep feeling for the blues.” Tracks such as this album’s title track, the breathless “The Fox,” which makes stellar use of the unforgettable Dupree Bolton, the mythically talented trumpeter out of Oklahoma City whose career tragically derailed, as well as legendary pianist Elmo Hope, who penned four of the album’s six tracks, highlights this. The surprisingly moving, honey-like “Mirror Mind Rose” also showcases Land’s range and is an extraordinary exercise in expression and restraint. This album, writes the New Yorker, is “well worth savoring."

Harold Land’s hard bop album “The Fox” was originally released in 1960, with Contemporary Records reissuing it in ‘69. Featuring Harold Land (tenor sax), Dupree Bolton (trumpet), Elmo Hope (piano), Herbie Lewis (bass), Frank Butler (drums) it was produced by David Axelrod. This new edition, released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series, features (AAA) lacquers cut from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP, and presented in a tip-on jacket.