In Baltimore is a hard swinging, free wheeling, never released before live set from tenor saxophone legend George Coleman.

The George Coleman Quintet, completed by trumpeter Danny Moore, pianist Albert Dailey, bassist Larry Ridley, and drummer Harold White, are captured in blistering form at Baltimore’s  Famous Ballroom in 1971.

One of jazz’s most powerful tenor saxophonists and his well-oiled ensemble play with such unerring synchronicity that a listener might be excused for assuming that most of the arrangements had been laid out beforehand.

Not so, according to Coleman’s testimonial in the liner notes: “We didn’t do much written stuff… it was going to sound like an arrangement, which it was, but it wasn’t written… we just went in and played.”

Coleman and Moore set the tone from the start with their intro to John Lewis’  Afternoon In Paris, interweaving in dual improvisation before melding into a unison statement of the theme, which then segues into Coleman’s solo: bright with good humour, dancing gaily through the tune’s harmonic architecture, probing with quick-minded precision yet never sounding academic or dry.

Moore expands on the freewheeling mood, interspersing a few smears to add a tinge of hipster irony. Dailey then invokes a more pastoral feel before breaking into a jubilantly swinging main passage, as Ridley and White lay down a tight rhythmic framework. The ensemble brings similar freshness to such standards as Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring and Sandu.

Notable is I Got Rhythm, reimagined as a high-octane, bop-ified workout. Coleman plunges through the changes with daunting dexterity, nodding only obliquely to the original theme. It is the set’s most jaw-dropping technical display - yet, as throughout, relaxed, unforced, and devoid of pretension or self-indulgence. An enjoyable listen, from start to finish.