When just about everybody was breaking out the shovels to bury big bands as a serious medium for modern jazz, along comes Francy Boland and Kenny Clarke to put together a band that not only swung, but was a vehicle for modern arrangements. Boland was associated with his co-leader since 1958 when Clarke, one of bebop's early practitioners and an émigré from the United States, was a member of Boland's unit. Boland wrote all the charts for this co-led outfit, including masterful arrangements of some of America's top pop standards that are on this release. The band was populated with an international cast of musicians, allowing Boland to take a page from Duke Ellington's book to create arrangements and award solos on the basis of the individuals in the band at any given moment. And, like Ellington, his piano snuck in a few comps from time to time to keep matters on track. This particular iteration featured the trumpets of Benny Bailey and Idrees Sulieman on such cuts as "By Strauss" and "When Your Lover Has Gone." The vibes were regularly featured in Boland's arrangements. Dave Pike is highlighted on several cuts, including title tune "Let's Face the Music and Dance" and "I'm All Smiles," trading lilting eights on the latter with Sahib Shihab's flute. One of the qualities that set apart this aggregation from others of the same mettle was the smoothness of the playing. Smoothness here means sensuous and bluesy, not lifeless in the sense the term is used in contemporary jazz. There's a bounce to the up-tempo tunes, but the ostentatious playing other bands were noted for is shunned. A fine performance that should be released on CD.