This is a valuable addition to the three albums the Directions in Jazz Unit made, two under their own name for Phillips, Directions in Jazz from 1964 and Road to Ellingtonia from 1965; and one for World Record Club entitled Twice Times Keyboard (which does not credit Directions in Jazz, but merely gives the DiJ personnel) from 1966.

This R&B Records set comprises two CDs, the first a session for NDR, the German radio station (hopefully, one day the role of German radio in documenting British jazz in the 1960s, and the welcome employment it brought, will be compiled on disc) and three sessions on the second CD for the BBC, including two tracks from the ensemble's widely circulated Jazz 625 performance plus three more tracks for their NDR session.

The ensemble, with its unusual line-up based around the Bill Le Sage/Ronnie Ross Quartet with an additional two saxes and a string quartet was welcome tonal relief to the then dominant trumpet, saxophone plus rhythm sound on both sides of the Atlantic. DiJ offered an altogether different sonic palette with a cello quartet woven into the fabric of the arrangements, which were highly original, offering Le Sage, Johnny Scott and Ross an opportunity for quiet experimentation, often influenced by elements drawn from classical music that followed Le Sage's lead in attempting – successfully – to create orchestral settings with as few instruments as possible.

It neatly sidesteps the jazz and classical Third Stream experiments in the USA with light, buoyant textures that always swung, and the avoidance of dissonance that Third Stream embraced – even Le Sage's ‘Improvisation on a Twelve Tone Scale’ remains light on its feet.