At the dawn of the 1950s, the Weiss brothers, who owned a pressing plant, founded Fantasy Records to take over the masters recorded by Dave Brubeck for the failing Coronet label. Issuing these and going on to record Brubeck regularly, their new label and his bands (trio, quartet and octet) developed in tandem. When Brubeck (who had brought other acts to the company) discovered that his own interest in the company was not the 50 per cent share he thought he had, but just 50 per cent of his own records, he jumped ship in 1953 to George Avakian at Columbia. But here we have the fruits of the collaboration with the Weiss' label.

As almost everything Fantasy released in 1949-52 started life as a single 78rpm release, this set is a chance to chart a phase of Brubeck's career in detail, with 24 trio tracks of Dave plus bassist Ron Crotty and percussionist Cal Tjader leading up to the formation of the first quartet with Paul Desmond, represented here by 17 tracks. Missing from the story are his earlier 1946 Octet sides (which can be found on the 4-CD Properbox Time Was, which otherwise charts a very similar trajectory). They are important because they show his close ties to his teacher Darius Mihaud, and help underpin the developments on show here. The later Octet tracks here are interesting, but several are rather poorly played, notably the ‘Fugue on Bop Themes’ that has clarinettist Bill Smith hanging on to the melodic line for dear life. The standards for this larger group tend to have harmonised block writing around the melodic lines, but they lack the emotional punch of the quartet, and, to be honest, a little of the trio goes quite a long way. The set is redeemed by the early quartets, and by both Brubeck's knack for a melody and Desmond's improvisational imagination. Hence their radio theme song ‘Lyons Busy’ has a hummable theme and moves on to an early example of Desmond's creative strength as both a soloist and a foil for Dave's piano. As they settle into their unique take on standards, the album becomes a joy and pieces such as ‘A Foggy Day’ and ‘Stardust’ bear plenty of repeated listening.