The “best-selling piano trio record ever” just became twice as long (not thrice, though, since the third CD contains the original LP programme remastered). When jazz education gives only a cursory nod to bebop, let alone swing, it's easy to overlook Garner – despite the enormous long-term influence via his disciple Ahmad Jamal and basically any pianist who ever played fast-moving block-hands with their right. Annotators of this reissue, including Geri Allen, astutely point out that Garner's rhythmic vocabulary imitated the big swing bands (think about 1950s jazz organists doing the same). This explains his legendary rock-solid “rhythm-guitar” left hand while the right played around with amazing rubatos, a division of labour occasionally reversed here when the left plays in clavé (‘Mambo Carmel’ etc) with the right soaring straightahead. On paper, it's easy to build a negative case against Garner's clichéd phrasing, his too obvious contrasts between very loud and very soft – all the worst aspects of Jamal, in fact. But, faced with the joyous noise that comes out, it's hard not to keep grinning at the manipulation of musical techniques, with harmonic expertise thrown in for free. Truly, this is an urgently needed uplift for these troubled times.