This collection is a collector's piece and stands out as some of the most important music of the 20th century. Extremely informative notes, in the booklet by Zan Stewart, and pictures make this set another worthy addition to any jazz fan. Rollins is a young giant on these tracks, and all the units he worked with were wonderfully tightly organised groups that shone brightly in his company. This is inspirational jazz with perfectly accomplished soloists who perform with a considerable amount of musicality. Like Cher and Sonny Bono later, his antics and her polished, unperturbed vocals vaulted the duo into instantaneous success.
Numbers are short, with the session garnering the feeling of a live club date.
There is a comfortable, spontaneous interplay throughout. On the liner, there is a stated indebtedness to pianist Sal Mosca, and Bluth's technique seems to owe much to Mosca's use of empty spacing, a sparse economy of notes, and the oblique rhythm patterns that characterized Mosca's playing. The brief opening cut on this 1999 disc, featuring the three tenors of Flip Phillips, James Carter, and Joe Lovano, certainly conjures up those heady days of the JATP concerts of the 40's and 50's. The fact that Phillips, now in his 85th year, holds his own with tenormen who weren't yet around for those concerts, speaks for his unerring ability to swing with some of the best of the younger generation of musicians. Special kudos to pianist Uri Caine, tenorman Chris Speed, and trombonist Joshua Roseman.