The Jazz Sentinels were a short-lived nonet based in New York City between 1959 and 1961. Led by the eccentric vibraphonist Rod Tarpleigh, the unit was known for its complex arrangements and unusual line-up of players (for example, at that time, it was essentially unheard of to feature a banjo in a hard bop combo). The crack rhythm section most recently had toured with flugelhorn maestro David Mills, but they left that group when Mills insisted that all the members perform blindfolded, which led to several painful stage mishaps. The Sentinels' breakout star was teenage flute wunderkind Jeremy Feldman, whom Tarpleigh discovered performing at a neighbor's daughter's bat mitzvah.
Tootin', the third and final album by the group (after Snackin' and Loungin'), features what became the band's signature sound: not quite experimental enough to satisfy the free jazzers and a little too "out there" to satisfy the bop purists. Tarpleigh's insistence that the horn players periodically shift to different keys than the rest of the band made the Sentinels even more challenging for all but the most sophisticated listeners.
Following the group's demise, the members scattered, within some staying in the business and others traveling alternative paths. Trombonist Jimmie "Longarm" Jackson took up competitive embroidery, and tenor sax player Lyndon "Gramps" Blake (the most senior member of the group, having played with Zoot Gilmore and His Hot Six in the late '20s) spent most of the time in his attic. Tarpleigh bounced around for a decade and even submitted an original vibes-heavy soundtrack for consideration by the producers of the 1973 horror flick The Exorcist, but the producers went with English musician Mike Oldfield instead.
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