This session should be better known and, despite being recorded 60 years ago, I believe this is the first time the whole 3LP set has been reissued (RCA Bluebird did a single CD selection called Paris 1958 back in 1992). Done on the last night of a residency at the Saint-Germain – hence, not a ‘concert’ but a club date – its lively audience (including expatriates such as pianist Hazel Scott) responds to quotations and even sings along a couple of times. Some repertoire is drawn from the famous Blue Note album Moanin’ (taped less than eight weeks before) with the addition of earlier items like ‘Whisper Not’ and ‘Politely’, and classics like ‘Now's The Time’, ‘Evidence’ and ‘A Night In Tunisia’. Though the back cover claims that expatriate Kenny Clarke replaces Blakey in the latter, he joins in while Art is present throughout, his varied dynamics and the way he influences his soloists particularly well captured. As to Morgan, Golson and Timmons, they are everything you might hope for and more unbuttoned than on your average studio date, perhaps because of the preceding tension over payment financed (but only just) by Daniel Filipacchi of Europe 1’s jazz radio show. Great stuff.