Benny Golson is 85 and still extremely active. One of the most charming and highly intelligent musicians you could ever wish to meet, he is of course, one of music's most respected musician/composers, whose classics like ‘Whisper Not’ and especially ‘I Remember Clifford’ have been covered many times. These quartet dates – the very obscure Argo label album Free and the four weeks earlier Turning Point on Mercury – were recorded at the end of 1962, following his three year co-led Jazztet period with Art Farmer and Cedar Walton (heard on the bonus track) which, of course, superseded his highly successful partnership with trumpeter Lee Morgan in the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers. Though later on, the impact of John Coltrane's conception would change Golson's sound, at this stage his earliest influences were still much in evidence. These have been various listed as including Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry, Ben Webster, Lucky Thompson and Sonny Rollins and here he's teamed with two impeccable rhythm sections. The Downbeat reviews reprinted on the sleeve give five stars to Free. In retrospect, this date is possibly over-polite and the Miles men support team has more warmth. Sadly none of the new originals (one on Free plus a reworking of his Blakey era hit ‘Just By Myself’ and three on Point), have the same impact as his earlier masterpieces.