As he says in his note for this album, Gary Burton rated Cal Tjader as one of the four great influences on his generation of jazz vibraphonists along with Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo and Milt Jackson.

Yet Tjader is not nearly as well-known or frequently remembered as the other three. He is most often mentioned in connection with his role in popularising Latin jazz, but as he shows here, across six sets, in which the Latin tracks make up roughly half the material, he was also a formidable straightahead player.

The opening set is terrific, as it’s a partnership with his friend the arranger and keyboardist Clare Fischer, and their takes on ‘Take the A Train’, ‘It Never Entered My Mind’ and ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’ (a nod to Tjader’s early boss Dave Brubeck) are masterly.

In his next line-up with pianist Lonnie Hewitt, the band slides easily from one groove to another, with an introspective ‘Here’s That Rainy Day’ neatly setting up Tjader’s Latin original ‘Davito’. By 1966 Tjader is having fun with the voicings of Milt Jackson’s ‘Bag’s Groove’, shifting the pitch of the theme and then harmonising it creatively, before the band proves it’s as adept at swinging a blues as it is at tackling Latin themes such as Mario Bauza’s ‘Mambo Inn’.

This latter track, in common with 21 of the others, benefits immeasurably from the conga playing of Armando Peraza, and it’s clear the band enjoyed each of these visits to play before the enthusiastic crowd at the Penthouse in Seattle.

I can’t quite agree with Greg Casseus’s notes that suggest ‘Lush Life’ (in Tjader’s earliest recording of it) is a ‘real thrill’ owing to the lacklustre arco bass playing of Stan Gilbert on the opening section, but once he puts down the bow and lets the rest of the band take over it becomes a good introspective reading of the song.

But the highlight remains the opening set with Fischer on piano and a level of invention that runs consistently high throughout.