This session from Art’s 1981 European tour, gives us a chance to hear this relatively late quartet in mid-development. They were recorded in Copenhagen three days earlier (with Duke Jordan on piano), and then five weeks later they spent three days in the studio in Los Angeles. On those dates, both before and after this Italian concert, they played some of the same repertoire, so it’s clear ‘Over the Rainbow’ was very much in Art’s head, as were his own ‘For Freddie’ and ‘Landscape’. Here after a loosening opening blues (‘For Blanche’) on which the cobwebs are blown away, ‘For Freddie’ becomes the central piece in the set, its spiky theme (partially shadowed by Cables in unison behind the alto) becomes a springboard for some of Pepper’s most agile post-bop soloing. His tone is edgy and aggressive and he gets strong backing from the trio.

His unaccompanied opening to ‘Over the Rainbow’ plays with the acoustics of the room, and we hear him moving slightly off mike to test the natural echo right across the range of the instrument and with phrases that only nod briefly towards the theme, which he finally brings in sumptuously over Cables’ deft accompaniment, reminding us just what a great ballad player he was.

Even as his solo moves into slightly abstract territory we never lose sight of Harold Arlen’s original song. Almost seven minutes in, he makes way for the piano, but the rapturous audience reaction to his playing shows he’d made his point. ‘Landscape’ revisits his collaboration with Cables on the 1979 album of that name with a memorable collective reworking of its angular theme (including a lovely half chorus with the alto playing a quiet duet with Williams’ bass). Overall, it’s great to have this reminder of Art’s late-period playing, less than a year before his death.