Born in Calcutta in 1933, Ronnie Ross returned to Britain with his Scottish parents at the age of nine and was London's leading baritone saxophonist in the 1950s and 60s, working with all the leading UK modernists. Tubby Hayes, Don Rendell and Harry South each contributed numbers for his session, including ‘The Serpent’, a number Tubby often featured with his own groups. Ross' career was rising at this time. The following year he toured Europe as featured guest with the MJQ and the UK with Woody Herman's Anglo-US Herd. He died in 1991. This rare album reminds us of the fluency and strength of his baritone sax work and the versatility of Eddie Harvey, who skips nimbly from piano to trombone and back, sometimes during the course of a single number. It's probably no coincidence that several tracks have a similar ambience to the piano-less Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer quartet, which had recently visited London.

Clifford Brown-influenced trumpeter Bert Courtley, later to form a short-lived big band with tenorist Kathy Stobart, also turns in lively solos, both open and muted, and swells the group's rather formal ensembles. Ross leads the group with élan, reminding us at one point that alto saxophone was his first instrument. If one ignores the faintly starchy atmosphere typical of the period and the dated brick-wall endings to nearly every track, you'll find that the solo work on this album wears very well.