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Marginalized as a result of his limited recorded output -- just one LP as a leader, the excellent Music to Fill a Void -- trumpeter Don Fagerquist remains ripe for rediscovery: a surefooted and expressive trumpeter, his cool, nuanced tones capture the essence of West Coast jazz. Portrait of a Great Jazz Artist is an exemplary introduction to Fagerquist's music, cherry-picking his finest solos from a series of dates spanning from 1955 to 1959 in support of Les Brown, Russ Garcia, and others. Aided and abetted by sidemen including Herb Geller and Zoot Sims, Fagerquist exhibits a stunningly imaginative melodic ability, creating a seemingly contradictory sound that's soft and mellow but boasts diamond-sharp edges.