Along with Barry Harris, Walton was a true keeper of the bebop flame. Unlike so many pianists in the 1970s, and 80s, he saw no reason to pay homage to the likes of Evans, Tyner, Hancock, Corea or Jarrett. There was a price to pay in the court of popular opinion for this stance, and that was being considered old hat, akin to ragtime pianists when Harlem Stride took over in the early 1920s. Musicians thought otherwise, but they were not the paying audience.

Red Records took a similar stance to the musicians, aware that the purity of his approach to modern jazz piano was a refreshing alternative to the legions of pianists offering their take on Evans or Hancock. As with Barry Harris, Walton’s style can be traced back to Bud Powell, but whereas Powell’s left-hand voicings were uncomplicated and open, giving the right hand a lot of freedom, Harris and Walton opted for richer left hand voicings but without sacrificing the freedom for the right’s virtuostic eighth and sixteenth note inventions.

Walton’s harmonic understanding went deep, and his voicings are a measure of how his style maintained its urbane universality and poise – the main takeaway from this reissue. Higgins was a master drummer, Williams a sound and professional bassist and Walton’s playing was as good as it would ever be at any point in his life. It’s often overlooked what a good composer he was – his ‘Bolivia,’ ‘Mode for Joe,’ and ‘Ugetsu’ (actually ‘Fantasy in D’) all gave their names to classic jazz albums of the 1960s. Here, ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ and ‘Ojos de Rojo’ see Walton at one with the keyboard, ideas flow easily and both titles are good examples of the pianist at his best. His take on Monk, ‘Off Minor,’ does not allow the idiosyncratic composer’s style to overwhelm him (as it so often does with others), while ‘For All We Know’ lapses not into sentimentality, but rueful reflection.