This Kenny Wheeler Sextet album features previously unreleased tracks (all but one, "Kind Folk"), from a 1995 session with fluid playing by all involved: Wheeler on flugelhorn throughout, Ray Warleigh on alto saxophone and flute, Stan Sulzmann on tenor sax, with a guitar/bass/drums rhythm section comprised of John Parricelli, Chris Laurence, and Tony Levin, respectively.

The dominant group sound is reminiscent of hard bop and modal jazz, with echoes of the playing of artists like Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson and Clifford Brown. This is playing from Wheeler's mature period (he was 65 at the time) with lyrically eloquent and technically smooth exploratory phrasing. Everyone seems on the same modal wavelength in the improvised interplay and the pre-composed "backgrounds" are sympathetically played by the horns while the rhythm section provides characteristic colorful harmonies and pulses.

The composition credits are spread all around, with two pieces by Wheeler ("What Was" and "Kind Folk"), two by Sulzmann ("You've Read the Book" and "Newness"), two by Warleigh ("Blue Nile" and "Footloose"), one by Mike Pyne ("Masbro"), a fellow musician not present on this date. There is also Lee Konitz's fabulous "Subconscious-Lee" tagged onto "What Was."

While this is definitely a trip down memory lane, this is music well-deserving of being shared with the listening public — Wheeler fans as well as afficionados of jazz of the traditional ilk. The original session was produced by Evan Parker and recorded in one day in 1995. This was an "old school" session, where charts were brought in and the rehearsing and recording happened quickly and the resulting freshness of the music is a testimony to the effectiveness of this approach in maximizing the creative quality of the endeavour.

A bonus is the extensive notes by Nick Smart, author of Song for Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler.