Eavesdropping on an informal session is a mixed blessing. Getting on for half of the first CD in this two-CD set is occupied by one blues. In it, everyone says what they have to say, and then repeats it again a few times. After that, a pacier ‘A Different Blues’ occupies 14 minutes of the second disc, preceding another lengthy blues ‘Deuces Wild’.

No doubt this was all great fun if you were in the Left Bank Jazz Club in Baltimore's Famous Ballroom, but it's not ideal material for sustained re-listening. The lesson here is that small, or rather concise, is beautiful. In ‘Star Eyes’ (just over eight minutes) Stitt's playing is exquisite, and his spur-of-the-moment ideas, bebop flurries, and forays into the upper register all work brilliantly, with his world-class rhythm section on great form – especially Sam Jones, who apart from a slightly twangier recorded sound than I remember him having in person, anchors everything with magnificent swinging basslines, and turns in a fluent solo. Here, and on a beautiful version of ‘Lover Man’, on which nobody else solos, Stitt is on the dazzling and inventive form he’d shown on tour with Dizzy and the Giants of Jazz over the previous two years.

So overall, these undoubted gems are slightly overshadowed by the band just having fun and stretching out (rather too endlessly) for the punters.