The title of this exciting meeting between the tenors of
Gene Ammons and
Sonny Stitt was rather poignant, because this recording was released in the late '60s, when
Ammons was serving a long jail sentence for possession of heroin, and it appeared that he and
Stitt might never meet up again. Backed by pianist John Houston, bassist
Buster Williams, and drummer George Brown,
Ammons and
Stitt (who had co-led a regular group a decade before) proved once again to be a perfect team, jamming on a variety of standards, blues, and ballads while also revisiting "New Blues Up and Down." The two tenors always brought out the best in each other, and luckily, they would get back together in the early '70s. This is high-quality bebop. ~ Scott Yanow