It may seem amazing that such an important document of British jazz history, the last night at Ronnie Scott’s ‘Old Place’ – the basement of 39 Gerrard Street which was the original Ronnie Scott’s club in Soho – featuring the Mike Westbrook Concert Band has taken this long to be released. Scott allowed upcoming musicians to use his Gerrard Street premises as a performance/rehearsal space managed by John Jack for the final 18 months of unexpired lease when Ronnie’s moved to 47 Frith Street. It may well have been the poor sound quality that stood in the way of the album’s release, but with the passage of time, this unique slice of British jazz history has grown in such importance and such considerations have diminished. The repertoire Westbrook featured that historic night on 25 May 1968 precisely mirror the first eight tracks of his debut LP on Deram Records, Release, recorded a few months later, on the 7 and 9 August. ‘Who’s Who’, reappears as track 12 of Release, while ‘Can't Get You Out of My Mind’ was on track 14. The grand finale of the concert, ’A Life of Its Own’, does not appear on any of Westbrook’s subsequent albums of the period. There are differences, between the concert and the same numbers recorded for Release: solos go on for much longer live (as might be expected), for example ’Lover Man’ – a feature for Mike Osborne – elides into ‘For Ever and a Day’ on both albums, with the combined version on Release clocking in at four minutes, while the concert presentation runs for eight minutes. This is a historic document, and a valuable one at that, and must be seen in this context, and while sound may be an issue for some, for others it will be a slice of history made real.