A strong swing-based tenor from England,
Danny Moss has long been underrated, since he has spent most of his career based in Europe. This set (reissued on a 1994 CD) was only his second as a leader; his third would not come until 11 years later. With the spirited outing,
Moss is teamed with altoist Jack Jacobs plus trombonist Mike Collier's Fourteen Foot Band, a very complementary quintet here expanded to a septet. The unit performs 11 standards mostly from the swing era (including "I Want to Be Happy," "'Blue Lou," and "You Can Depend On Me"); the original LP is augmented by seven alternate takes. The enthusiastic and high-quality solos (trumpeter Ted Ambrose, who takes a couple of decent vocals, is also a fine player) plus some well-placed riffing makes this a consistently satisfying and sometimes exciting set of mainstream swing. Worth investigating by fans of the genre. ~ Scott Yanow