Of the post-bop pianists born in the decade after Bud Powell (Kenny Drew, Barry Harris, Sonny Clark et al), Kelly is the most easily recognisable. His effervescent right-hand lines and his rhythmic drive are highly distinctive, and tremendously effective. This is the second of two reissues from Avid that cover nearly all the work under his own name until the early 1960s, with a couple of quirks detailed below. The previous Four Classic Albums CD began with the 19-year-old Wynton making his debut on Blue Note, and it continued with Riverside and Vee-Jay material from 1958-61 that dovetails with this reissue, which draws mainly on three Vee-Jay sessions. Two of these are trio sets, mostly with Chambers (offering a great chance to compare the work of Philly Joe and Cobb). And the earliest has the 1959 Jazz Messengers front-line of Morgan and Shorter (the first studio outing for the latter, who contributes some breathtaking – and weird – playing).

As to this reissue’s quirks, one is the inclusion of the All Members album led by Don Sleet who, apart from this one leader date, recorded little and disappeared into drug use. Kelly’s own July 1961 Vee-Jay session produced both an album and differently configured reissues, one of which was on the previous Avid set and its three titles that overlap the present album are the same takes (though alternates apparently exist on a Japanese reissue – as do versions overdubbed with strings, not present here). Given that many LPs of this period ran for little more than 30 minutes, AvidJazz have found the space to add a ballad medley from the all-star Verve session called Sittin’ In, which sees Getz, Paul, Hawk and Kelly’s then-employer Diz each taking one chorus of a standard song, all backed by Wynton who gets ‘Love Walked In’ for himself. One of the shortest but most joyous of the trio tracks was mis-titled, probably through mis-hearing by the producer: ‘Joe’s Avenue’ turns out to be ‘Scotch And Water’ written by, you’ve guessed it, Joe Zawinul.