Anger is not a word one normally associates with the late, great Dave Brubeck. But anger is most definitely on display in this splendid live album from the classic Brubeck quartet’s 1967 (and final) European tour.

Except that it’s not a quartet we’re listening to here, it’s a trio. After the quartet’s gig in Hamburg on 10 November, Paul Desmond got ‘distracted’ when out exploring the German port city’s many delights. When Brubeck, Wright and Morello flew out to Austria the next day, Desmond was still missing. In fact, he went completely AWOL, only rejoining his bandmates on 13 November in Paris. As Brubeck’s son Darius points out in the sleevenotes: “Dave was mad because Paul was unacceptably missing.”

But in the meantime, mad Dave or not, there was the 12 November date in Vienna to play. Forced to adapt in Desmond’s absence, the trio played a singular set in a very singular way. All the numbers bar one were covers, for a start, and from the opening number, a sizzling ‘St Louis Blues’, the ‘enforced Trio’ set out their stall: this was Brubeck in uncharacteristically fiery form, with an emphasis on syncopation and rhythm rather than melody, on the spontaneous rather than the cerebral; it isn’t the impeccably elegant Brubeck of Time Out, but a more primeval – and refreshingly different – version. My guess it’s a Brubeck a lot of people would have liked to get to know better, had they got the chance.

But anyway, what of the music? After that opener, the set continues to fizz, with a wonderful 10-minute version of Brubeck’s ‘One Moment Worth Years’ featuring a splendid bass solo (in fact Gene Wright, who is clearly having the time of his life, is the star of this record); ‘Swanee River’ is a highly syncopated Morello-led piece, which is then followed by a sweet and tender ‘La Paloma Azul’. The final two numbers, ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’ and ‘Take The A Train’ are intense, uptempo romps to send the audience home happy. One might guess that Dave, Gene and Joe went home happy too, because they’d just knocked it out of the park, and transformed potential disaster into a triumph.

This excellently-recorded set has actually been released before – as Live at the Wiener Konzerthaus 1967 on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF’s in-house label, but available only directly from the broadcaster. Now repackaged and on the Brubeck family’s label, it’s available to everyone, and is well worth your time and money.