Unlike the lush, large-band Sophisticated Giant, this 1978 album finds Dexter Gordon in the studio with his road band of the time — pianist George Cables, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Eddie Gladden — delivering impassioned performances of four standards and two originals. Cables wrote “I Told You So,” and Gordon brought in “LTD,” but the album’s real heart is found in an eight-and-a-half-minute romp through “Moment’s Notice,” and a nearly 13-minute version of “Body and Soul” that strikes a perfect balance between late-night cool and volcanic displays of hard bop showmanship.

– Phil Freeman