This was tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh's first recording as a leader since 1960. A largely unsung classic, originally released in 1969, and featuring the most purist of all the followers of Cool School guru Lennie Tristano's ascetically linear method of jazz improvising. West Coast saxophonist Warne Marsh (like all the Tristanoites) liked staying in a narrow dynamic range, but within it he could perform miracles of melodic invention and rhythmic audacity - though almost always performing the latter over a metronomically steady drummer's groove. The Tristano ideal of the quietly ticking rhythm section is not present on Ne Plus Ultra, however, and the music is all the better for it. Drummer John Tirabasso is an interventionist when the time is right and a master of touch when that's required, and bassist Dave Parlato prompts as much as he accompanies. This makes for what might be called whole group music, despite the attention that the saxophones of Marsh and Gary Foster perhaps inevitably command.