Originally a one-off project for Impulse, this sees Shelly stepping out of his LA comfort zone to briefly return to his native New York to work in duo, trio and quartet settings with Coleman Hawkins, Hank Jones, George Duvivier and Eddie Costa. An invigorated Hawkins proves to be his immaculate self throughout to the point where, on a totally improvised one-take ‘Me And Some Drums’, he duets with Shelly first on piano, then on sax to great effect. This may well be Shelly's date, but from the opening ‘Take The ‘A’ Train', he doesn't attempt to upstage the magnificent contributions from Hank Jones and George Duvivier as he goes about demonstrating his extraordinary percussion skills be it changing tempos (‘Cherokee’) or playing counter rhythms (‘Avalon’) with great intelligence. By no means a groundbreaking encounter but worth while catching Hawkins in such a boisterous mood, and if you haven't already got Shelly's best selling My Fair Lady album, it's included as the required bonus.