Often eclipsed by the club he started in 1959, and his dry, oblique sense of humour, Ronnie Scott was undoubtedly one of the UK's most gifted saxophonists and bandleaders, yet his recorded catalogue has mostly managed to side-step the lofty regard and wallet-traumatising collectability that surrounds many other 1960s Brit-Jazz releases, particularly EMI's Lansdowne Series sides. Affordable it might be, but the bang for your buck with this sparkling 1969 CBS release leaves many sought-after rarities deep in the shade as Scott pitches up on home turf with a brand new nonet that reads like a who's who of the UK's finest, tooled up and ready for business. Combining forward-looking players, Surman, Oxley Beck and Warleigh with seasoned heads, Wheeler, Pyne and Clare, the two drummer set up, no doubt influenced by the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band who Scott had recently toured with, turbo-charged the rhythm section adding both propulsion and complexity. With a book of fresh, engaging arrangements, the material was tracked over two nights at the club and moves from deft hard-bop and latin-tinged fireworks, including Joe Henderson's ‘Recorda Me’, ‘Marmacita’ and Laurie Holloway's ‘King Pete’; through the modal intensity of Mike Westbrook's ‘Too Late, Too Late’ with Surman's torrid, twisting baritone a marvel; to the melancholic shadow of John Cameron's beguiling woodsmoke and lichen arrangement of Donovan's ‘Lord of the Reedy River’, with Wheeler summoning the haunting spirits of Stan Tracey's ‘Starless and Bible Black’. The final 10-minute blow-out of Beck's McCoy Tyner-esque ‘Macumba’, with the Guvn'r and Warleigh both battling hard over Clare and Oxley's storm-tossed seas, before the explosive free coda almost shatters the windows of Bar Italia opposite, is an absolute, life-affirming joy that closes out Ronnie's most adventurous work. Now tell me why original copies still sell for under £15 when some musically inferior Brit-jazz LPs go for over four figures?