Falling in love again… Released in 1975, Citadel/Room 315 is rightly recognised, if you need labels, as a classic of not just that Brit Jazz golden age, but of any era. But you’ve never heard it like this before.

The original commission to write the piece came from the Swedish Radio Jazz Group. For the self-taught Westbrook, this was his first fully-scored piece, and it gave him the confidence to see himself as a composer, and not a ‘big band’ leader (a notion he still baulks at). But Westbrook needed a muse, and who better than Kate, his new wife, to whom this release is dedicated. So the music is about falling in love: with composing, with a new life and with a new vision where jazz escapes the chains of nationality and genre and becomes a voice of liberation.

Romantic, heady stuff? Yup, and why not? From the gruff blues-rock of ‘Construction’, to the gentle passion of ‘Tender Love’, to the bop rush of ‘Bebop de Rigueur’ (still in the Westbrook Uncommon Orchestra’s setlist), to the brilliant setting of different voices, like bass clarinet and alto horn in ‘View from the Drawbridge’; this is music from the fountainhead, Ellington and the blues.

Yet, even live, this Swedish band take it in their stride: after all nearly half of them recorded with George Russell on Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature, so had a relish for complexity. The results are cooler, more contained than the Brit band which had its own bull-at-the-gate verve about it. And of course through it all weaves Surman, lyrical and singing on soprano, moodsome and mysterious on bass clarinet, massive on baritone.

So it’s all there: new but familiar, raw yet sophisticated: angry, joyous and swoonsome all at once. But then, that’s the story of, that’s the glory of, love.

As a side note, there’s a beautifully-pressed and superb-sounding double LP version of the CD, which vinyl freaks are highly recommended to seek out.