The Dark Keys

Kenny Kirkland played on a long list of records, among them Black Codes (From the Underground) in 1985, yet he put out exactly one album under his own name: Kenny Kirkland, in 1991. The drummer on it was Jeff "Tain" Watts, who had been sitting next to him on Black Codes six years earlier.

The credits on Afro-Desia (1975) put Joe Lovano in an organist's band, seven years before Psalm (1982) set him alongside the drummer's group he would be identified with. Looking backwards from the later reputation, that route in is easy to miss.