Two important points are made here. As the title suggests, the West Coast was never reducible to ‘cool’ or rather, antithetically to the coined expression, ‘soft’. With as robust a front line as Art Pepper and Blue Mitchell the music hardly lacks punch or power. Secondly, the fact that the session was cut in the mid-1970s reminds us that, right in the middle of electric fusion, keepers of the acoustic bop flame did indeed continue to keep firing regardless of the lesser media attention afforded to this ‘old jazz’. Whether this school was outdated or not misses the point though, because this recording is really about the players having a blow. The quality of the soloing, particularly from both Mitchell and Pepper, is as high as one would expect, particularly on mid-tempo material. However, the set list and arrangements are simply pedestrian, if not uninspiring. Swinging the numbers may be but the heads are far from memorable and the long durations, the worst being ‘Roots 4FB’, which clocks in at almost 15 minutes, are not justified.