The core of this elegantly packaged release is the seven-track album cut by Tatum and Webster in 1956, and which was one of Tatum’s final recordings before his death, less than two months later. Long hailed as a masterpiece, the synergy between Webster’s mix of aggression and lyricism, and Tatum’s flamboyance and delicacy made for a fascinating encounter, in which Callendar and Douglass provide perfect support. Last reissued by Essential Jazz Classics, with a set of bonus tracks from a 1953 Tatum solo session (one of which appears here), this new reissue adds four numbers from a summit meeting between Webster and Teddy Wilson. This, while it is not in the same category as Wilson’s mid-1950s work with Lester Young, is nonetheless a good counterbalance to the main session on the record. However, nothing really matters apart from the Tatum-Webster tracks. The opening ‘All The Things You Are’ is taken at a languorous tempo, quite different from the breakneck speed of many a bebop jam session, and this sets the template for the date. ‘Night and Day’ and ‘Gone With The Wind’ pick up the pace, but even these have a sense of relaxation that pervades the measured ‘Have You Met Miss Jones?’ or the stately ‘My One and Only Love’. Tatum’s flurries of notes are decorative rather than urgent, and – despite more reverb than was fashionable in 1956 – Webster focuses on melody, embellishing the tunes with linear touches of his own that enhance the compositions. All in all, the album is an outstanding example of laid-back mainstream, and reverence for the ballad form, never giving away for an instant that this is actually difficult material to play with such insouciant charm.