These ten compositions by Bill Smith explore modal music in a different manner from Miles Davis, who had recorded Kind of Blue a year earlier in 1959. Smith, a longtime colleague of Brubeck's, plays on nine of them, "Soliloquy" being an excursion for Dave, accompanied only by bassist Gene Wright. Smith reveals a personal style that, however, sometimes sounds like Paul Desmond, if the latter had played the clarinet, and, at other points, conjures up of Jimmy Giuffre. Perhaps if the clarinet had been in jazz vogue at the time, Smith would have received his deserved recognition.

Dorian Dance; Peace, Brother; Invention, Lydian Line, Catch-Me-If-You- Can, Frisco Fog, The Piper, Soliloquy, One for the Kids, Ballade

with Eugene Wright, Joe Morello