This CD reissue is taken from drummer
Shelly Manne's brief avant-garde period. Actually
Manne does not play much different than usual but his sextet (trumpeter Gary Barone, John Gross on tenor, keyboardist
Mike Wofford, guitarist John Morell and bassist Roland Haynes) was open to much freer improvising than one would have heard in
Manne's more famous groups of the 1950s. John Gross is easily the most impressive soloist but in general the well-intentioned music is not all that memorable. ~ Scott Yanow