The Shelly Manne sextet in this exciting album reflects the leader’s acceptance of the freedom with which many young jazz artists of the late Sixties and early Seventies were conducting their search for self-expression. Long an advocate of stylistic renewal, Manne had no trouble adapting his drumming of his group concept to new developments that lessened the importance of traditional harmonic and rhythmic guidelines. Manne and Mike Wofford, his pianist from an earlier band, simply kept on swinging, but in a way that capitalized on their abilities and those of their young colleagues to make cogent music by more relaxed rules.

with Gary Barone, John Gross, Mike Wofford, John Morell, Roland Haynes