Booker Little and Friend
album by Booker Little
Booker Little and Friend is the final album led by American jazz trumpeter Booker Little featuring performances recorded in 1961 for the Bethlehem label. It was reissued under the title Victory and Sorrow in the vinyl era. The CD reissue added two previously released alternate takes.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated: "Booker Little is generally the top soloist on the harmonically advanced hard bop date and he is in peak form throughout".
Track listing
All compositions by Booker Little except as indicated
"Victory and Sorrow" – 5:56
"Forward Flight" – 6:18
"Looking Ahead" – 7:25
"If I Should Lose You" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin) – 5:11
"Calling Softly" – 5:39
"Booker's Blues" – 5:16
"Matilde" – 5:55
"Looking Ahead" [alternate take 4] – 8:27 Bonus track on CD reissue
"Looking Ahead" [alternate take 7] – 8:15 Bonus track on CD reissue
*Recorded in New York City, Summer 1961.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Booker Little and Friend” is album by Booker Little. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Booker, Little and Friend, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “album by Booker Little” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q892995. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Booker Little and Friend”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Booker Little and Friend primary sources, Booker Little and Friend archive and Booker research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Booker Little and Friend”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Booker Little and Friend” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.