Popularity awards and similar trophies are all well and good when being displayed on the mantelpiece, but the real ego-tickler is to have one's name emblazoned on a marquee over the entrance of a club. Buddy Rich ran two such establishments named ‘Buddy's Place’ (where this CD was recorded) and ‘Buddy's Place 2’. Both financial and physical demands accrue when constantly schlepping a big band around the globe, so scaling things right back to fronting a septet in an intimate club can greatly ease the strain. So no epic West Side Story tear-ups here, just an audience-friendly mixture that embraces bebop standards (‘Donna Lee’, ‘Billie's Bounce’), Horace Silver's ‘Nica's Dream’, The Headhunters' ‘Chameleon’ and The Count's ‘Jumpin’ At The Woodside’, plus some of Buddy's charts. Buddy's long-time sidekick Sal Nistico along with Sonny Fortune make a strong frontline, while any line-up featuring the great Kenny Barron is always worthy of investigation.