High Note Records continues to release important concert sessions from the famed Keystone Korner, this one featuring Cedar Walton. This session finds Walton at the piano and keyboards, just after leaving Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Eastern Rebellion and starting out on his own as a leader, right before his successful 1980 release Maestro. He’s teamed with a hard bopping group of Steve Turre/tb, Manny Boyd/ts, Tony Dumas/b and Ralph Penland/dr, and in acoustic gear deliver vintage hard bop with a thriving “March of the Fisherman” and “Precious Mountain.” Walton switches to electric piano on a couple of tracks, and the group gets funky on “Jacob’s Ladder.” The team strips down to trio form, always a Walton strength, and together delivers a lithe and lyrical “For All We Know” and stretch out as if tanning by the lake for a dreamy “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” Dumas is a master of melodic tempos, fitting like a glove with the leader’s elegant swing. This is a beauty from years past swimsuit editions.