The Mulligan, Desmond, Brubeck package toured Europe in October/November 1972, resulting in the album Together Again for the First Time (Atlantic) – interestingly produced by Siggi Loch well before his ACT days – with tracks taken from the Paris, Rotterdam and Berlin concerts. The two tracks taken from the Berlin concert – ‘Truth’ and ‘Unfinished Woman’ – appear here on this 2CD release, which claims to be the first time the complete concert has appeared ‘on any format’. However, the complete concert (minus the bonus tracks of which more anon) was released on DVD by Standing Ovation, and there is a reference to this album on the Brubeck website which claims this concert has been released by Jazz Hour (which, for all I know, could be a part of the Barcelona based company that released this. Things get complicated in the world of reissues). Brubeck had previously appeared with Mulligan at the Berlin Philharmonie in 1970, and Live at the Berlin Philharmonie, released in its complete form in 1995 by Sony Music, demonstrates the empathy Brubeck and Mulligan could generate, resulting in three encores. Brubeck's musical relationship with Desmond was the stuff of jazz legend, and during this 1972 concert their empathy was well in evidence. Desmond was in especially fine form on ‘Kyoto Song’ and ‘Unfinished Woman’ while Mulligan is a model of consistency, often adding improvised contrapuntal touches to Desmond's lines. There are seven bonus tracks, all sans Brubeck, five with Mulligan and Desmond who earlier had established fine rapport on Two of a Mind (RCA). These tracks are with Jackie Byard on piano, Milt Hinton on bass and Alan Dawson on drums, recorded live at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in June 1969, so presenting an interesting aside to the 1972 Berlin concert as well as being, so the liner notes say, the only other live recording extant of the two saxophonists. The final two tracks are Mulligan with the University of Illinois Orchestra at the same festival.