This CD arrives like a bolt out of the blue. These never before heard tracks have been salvaged and painstakingly remastered from (presumably) the late Neil Ardley's collection of tapes. The NJO and Jon Hiseman's Colosseum were gigging together at the time of this recording and it appeared that someone had the great idea of augmenting the rhythm section (which already had Jon Hiseman and Tony Reeves playing in both bands along with Dick Heckstall-Smith) with Dave Greenslade and Clem Clemson as 'guest stars' from Colosseum. Good practice for them as it turned out since Colosseum later incorporated two tracks played at this gig into their set list ('Rope Ladder to the Moon' and 'Tanglewood '63').

The packaging of this CD is typical of the quality of Dusk Fire Records. Extensive sleevenotes are penned by ex-NJO reedsman and Observer jazz critic, Dave Gelly who also is heard playing on this album. There are also plentiful photographs from the period and wonderful cover art featuring DHS with a tangerine background so reminiscent of the period in which it was recorded. Leaving aside the physicalities of the CD packaging, the music itself is glorious and all the more so for Ardley's inimitable arrangements which so characterised his genius.

A breakneck version of 'Dusk Fire' is played so fast it almost sounds totally new, Hiseman playing at Billy Cobham/Mahavishnu Orchestra speed. But it works well. A similar speedy treatment is given to 'Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe' but it loses none of its magic for all that and it's great to hear yet another version of this brilliant Michael Garrick composition which always sounded better in a big band context. Suitably majestic treatments are given to classics such as 'Naima', 'Nardis', Ardley's 'Shades of Blue' and Mike Taylor's 'Ballad' demonstrating that this band could play sensitively as well as swing and Mike Gibbs' 'Rebirth' is a fine example of where the band simply ignites with the coruscating jazz rock energy so typical of the time. There’s a nice touch at the end with the jokey ‘National Anthem & Tango’ which might have also suggested how much fun the musicians were having here.

Although NJO members Ian Carr, Frank Ricotti and John Mumford are missing from this session , Carr was understandably preoccupied with his new band Nucleus at the time and the other two were very busy session musicians, the present line-up here presents a fantastic array of British talent. It's also intriguing to hear what is, in effect, Colosseum playing with a big band and this is not to detract from the talent of the NJO themselves since individual talents aside, as a collective entity within the UK they were pretty much unique and remained so until the likes of Loose Tubes emerged years later.

Although the recording quality of this session is not quite as good at it might have been if it had been made using a mobile recording studio (as was Graham Collier's 'Mosaics' album later that year), the quality is nevertheless very high and its two track stereo is put to good use here. It just might be that this was recorded 'on the fly' for historic reasons, but this was so fortunate because the energy and inventiveness of this remarkable band is beautifully captured for posterity. This lost gem, now thankfully restored and made available for the first time, is a true gift to all jazz fans and Colosseum devotees will be delighted too, no doubt!

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