Deftly handling the alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, bebop giant Sonny Stitt is heard to perfection here on a variety of early-'50s dates. Stitt not only shows off his patented speed throughout, but he goes a long way in dispelling criticisms of him being all fire and no grace. The 16-track disc kicks off with four tight, Latin-tinged swingers featuring an octet that includes trumpeter Joe Newman and timbales player Humberto Morales. Switching to piano quartet mode for the bulk of the disc, Stitt ranges effortlessly from frenetic blasts ("Cherokee") to golden-hued ballads ("Imagination"). Capping off the set with four bonus cuts featuring the likes of Gene Ammons and Junior Mance, Stitt delivers one of the top sets of performances from the late bebop era.

The historical details surrounding the recording session that became Buddy & the Juniors are almost as entertaining - and oddly satisfying - as the music itself. Released on Blue Thumb in 1970 on multi-colored wax, this session, was it not for a very real economic necessity due to Buddy Guy's feud with Vanguard Records, would never have happened. It appears that Vanguard wouldn't pick up the tab for Guy to fly to New York to mix an album he'd cut with Junior Mance and Gary Bartz - also produced by Cuscuna. Being an ever-enterprising genius, Cuscuna pitched the idea for a recording between Guy, Mance, and Junior Wells to Blue Thumb label boss Bob Krasnow, who jumped at the chance. The all-acoustic Buddy & the Juniors was recorded on December 18 of 1969, and on December 19, they mixed this album and the Vanguard date…

Veteran pianist Junior Mance has worked and recorded with Jazz greats like Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey. He accompanied singers like Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin. Since the late 1980s he has been an acclaimed member of New Yorks New School and has given piano lessons to rising stars like Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings and Stephen Scott. On "Nadja" Mance shows his gentle lyrical and thoughtful side as well as his blues-drenched and soulful take on bop and hard bop. The Junior Mance Trio delivers classicism the way it’s supposed to be! Clear, unpretentious, prodigiously swinging piano improvisations on standards and originals.

At age 33 for this one, Mance (piano), with Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Mickey Roker (drums), has all the jazz and blues bases covered, going back to boogie and stride, through swing and bop, with a couple of more modernistic numbers rounding out this complete overview of classic American soul-based black music. Mance evokes wonderfully patient, romantic notions on "Creole Love Call," with creamy, molasses-like melodicism stirred by Roker's expert brush work. "Yancey Special" has Mance digging in and getting down as Roker shuffles along. "In the Evening" is much more tinkling and upbeat here than Leroy Carr wrote it, whereas the hard-swinging "Jumpin' the Blues" is as much fun to hear as it must have been to play…