Shortly before he signed with RCA, the fine hard bop tenor saxophonist recorded this fairly straight-ahead quintet date with trumpeter , pianist , bassist and drummer . The instrumentation differs on some of the tracks, with on around half the songs, sometimes sitting out, and being taken as a tenor/piano duet. There are some surprises along the way, with a few of the standards reharmonized a little, "Scrapple from the Apple" being played largely without chords (a la ), and "I Thought About You" becoming a tenor/bass duet. An excellent outing that finds stretching a bit beyond his hard bop roots. ~ Scott Yanow