Odd, isn't it, how all these buried treasures by Tubby Hayes, which had lain undisturbed in private collections for decades, are suddenly pouring on to the market in torrents. It must finally have dawned on the caretakers of these rare Ember and Tempo mastertapes and vinyls, presumably hoarders dreaming of making a late bundle, that any fans still searching for them will soon be on the deleted list themselves. Vintage-1959 Tubby is the star of this album, but not in his usual exuberant context. The LJQ was a novelty project in which everybody but bassist Jack Fallon switched instruments track by track. It's well known that Tubby liked to double on flute and vibraphone, the latter under a strong Milt Jackson influence, but here he's also heard on alto sharing chamber-jazz front-line duets with Alan Branscombe. A most underrated and versatile perfomer, Branscombe played good piano, vibes, alto and tenors axes before his career was truncated by ill health and the demon drink. He's heard on all these instruments here. Drummer Crombie plays acceptable piano when both hornmen are in action and contributes several tidy originals to this tuneful 14-track set. Enjoyable in an antiseptic sort of way, any part of it would make a fiendishly difficult subject for a blindfold test.