A truly pan-European jazz summit, featuring a Danish bassist, Swiss drummer, German pianist and French violinist, Sunday Walk was Ponty's fourth appearance on record and second album as a leader. Not yet 25 years old, the firebrand fiddler was already displaying the fierce, impatient energy and clear, strident attack that would lead to him being lured over to Los Angeles by Frank Zappa and into the orbit of the Mothers of Invention just a couple of years later. But, in 1967, the jazz-rock and fusion that he was to help pioneer hadn't even been invented yet. Here, he blazes a trail across bouncing boogaloo, fidgety bebop, sprightly waltz, louche ballad and, on his own composition, ‘Suite For Claudia,’ furiously up-tempo hard bop that must have made his bow a fire hazard in the studio. Recorded with a live and loose club-date feel, the whole session zings with passion and commitment.

Vinyl selling for £14.95 at ebay.com in October 2015