"Round About Midnight", the ballad attributed to Thelonious Monk, nicely slowed things down as Martino and Monaco kept everything, as they say, decidedly blue, and the soft drum accents of Brown remained unobtrusive and stabilizing.

In "Airegin", the popular Rollins' standard, Martino's fabled long lines plus blues stutters compared and contrasted well with organist Monaco's deep trough roller coaster runs and the unstoppable intensity of his blues cries in his dramatic tension-and-release solos.

But importantly, 'the cry' — 'the cry' — was always there, and the tunes were clearly more than mere vehicles for blowing.

It was the trio's clear rejoicing in the everlasting glories of melody, harmony, and rhythm, that kept connecting with this admiring and head-tossing audience.