Recorded in 1973 and released the following year, this album has never previously been released on Compact Disc and comes with a facsimile of the original cover art and annotations in an attractive cardboard gatefold pack. The usual response to marrying jazz and classical among most jazz fans is to pull a lemonsucking face and head for the hills. Yet the arrangements here are by Mike Gibbs, reflecting an enduring association with Burton that dates back to the debut of the Burton quartet on RCA Victor in its jazz-rock days. Gibbs’ writing has poise and elegance that welcomes the jazz quartet into the world of chamber music. Gibbs’ strongest composition on the album, ‘Throb’, emerges in multi-textual guise and is an impressive re-imagining of the piece, while ‘Nocturne Vulgaire/Arise, Her Eyes’ is a suave meeting of two genres that does not diminish either. The haunting ‘Rain Before It Falls’ is a lesser-known piece by Gibbs that enjoys a second life in the memory where it emerges unbidden time and again to remind you of this haunting performance.