At first glance - hell, even at second & third glances - this platter (originally on vinyl in 1978, CD in 2004) is an oddity. We got: one tenor saxophonist who’s an LA studio cat, who was in the old Tonight Show orchestra (Doc Severinsen, take a bow), also in Tom Waits' band and took the solo on Steely Dan’s hit "Deacon Blues." Then, one of the birth of (avant)Cool saxophonists (no, not on the Miles album), a disciple of piano iconoclast Lennie Tristano, on the same hep wavelength as Lee Konitz. It’s on a Major Label; the producers are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, a.k.a. Steely Dan, rock icons of the 70s & 80s; and it’s a straight-up, old-fashioned two-tenor session, the kind that Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis & Johnny Griffin and Al Cohn & Zoot Sims used to regularly engage in back-when. The result of all this oddness? A sterling set of beautifully recorded, searing, straight-ahead, mainstream bop tenor madness, that’s what. And this isn’t one a we-play-the-theme-together-then-I-solo, then you, blah blah blah set - both tenor dudes actively engage each other, at times forming a virtual "third tenor." Their styles are distinct yet oddly complimentary: Warne Marsh, the elder, an epitome of Lester Young translucent tone meets Konitz/Tristano brainy; Pete Christlieb, earthy-bluesy, full-bodied, a bit ruff-edged, full of up-and-down-the-West Coast swagger. Even though the program is mostly standards, there’s no coasting down bebop jam-land memory land - the energy level is three-cappuccino high, the tone bright, the swing crisp and gregarious. Need an album to help you wake up and face the day? Need to hear some jazz brimming with both "cool" and "exhilaration," completely forgoing any socio-political or "artistic" baggage? Then look ye no further - just reach for this Apogee, and quick. [This is mos definitely one of the reissues of 2004...AND it's got THREE MORE tracks than the original version, too.]