Kansas City tenorman Frank Wess, who died last October at the grand old age of 91, was best known for his years in the Count Basie Band. He and Frank Foster, who eventually took over as leader when Basie died, made a great ‘tenor-battle’ team, swapping postbop ideas with gusto in the 1950s and 60s, a period considered by many to have been the band's greatest, when Neal Hefti was its staff arranger. Wess's singular achievement, however, was to introduce the flute as a valid modern-jazz instrument, and the finest track here is his elegant solo-flute workout on ‘The Summer Knows’, plus perhaps his tender version of ‘Embraceable You’ on tenor. Behind him Barron and Malone are dependably enjoyable soloists in a pleasant, gently swinging session. If it sounds a little too tame in places, one should realise that Wess was 89 years old when it was recorded. The old raw power may have gone, but the wisdom of his comfortably extended blues solo on ‘Blues for Ruby’ does more than enough to remind listeners of the force he once represented.