This is the album I first heard Art Blakey & his Jazz Messenger's playing on, and I absolutely love it. Some of the hottest piano solos you will ever hear. This is as good as it gets, to my taste. If you're any kind of fan of straight ahead jazz and bebop, the songs are classic and the playing is stellar. Yeah, there's better recording technology now, but the sound is still phenomenal, and the playing...?Fahgeddaboudit.