Only a few weeks before this innovative album was recorded, Garner was in a Berlin recording studio at the helm of his new group comprising Ike Isaaks on bass, Jimmy Smith on drums and Jose Mangual on bongos for a brief, inspired session that somehow remained unpublished until today. In a laid-back atmosphere, they play an entrancing yet familiar repertoire of both timeless standards (Autumn Leaves, The Shadow of Your Smile, Blue Moon and These Foolish Things) and two original themes, including his favourite composition, Misty. The pianist is superbly accompanied by a rhythmic section that is elegant, minimalist and effervescent, and delivers the simple quintessence of his poetry almost as if by accident.

Böhm was 68 years old when, on 29 October 1962, he took up the baton in the legendary Saal 1 on Kaiserdamm Strasse in Berlin to conduct the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester. The programme comprised Symphony No. 4 by Johannes Brahms andTod und Verklärung(“Death and Transfiguration”), a tone poem by Richard Strauss. For decades, Böhm had finely worked each melodic line, each harmony, each tempo...