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Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums ably support Hubbard’s very warm-toned trumpet.

They were all somewhat senior to Hubbard, but the album subtly establishes his leadership by giving him first crack at solos on most of the tracks.

Along with his taking composer credit for two of the six tracks, Hubbard’s musicianship on this album presages his position as the foremost trumpeter among his contemporaries. Evidently, the title of the album shows prescience.

Like with most jazz from the middle of the last century, leadership, however, only means a position of being first among equals.

All Hubbard’s colleagues here were or are virtuosos on their instruments and all had already established themselves as such.

In keeping with the vogue of the time, the bulk of the solos are taken by Hubbard, Shorter and Walton, with Workman and Jones coming into the spotlight only occasionally.

Jones does so, on the first track, “Philly Mignon”, a fast-paced piece written by Hubbard in his honour.

Workman’s turn comes on the closing track, “Assunta”, on which his solo intro and solo closing motif are a welcome change from the pyrotechnics that Walton, Shorter and Hubbard serve up in the rest of the pieces in the album.

Most difficult of all is Hubbard’s game try at interpreting “Body and Soul”, a ballad for which Coleman Hawkins had set up an almost impossible standard a generation earlier with his very radical improvisation as soon as he played the basic theme at the opening. It is praise, not criticism, to say Hubbard comes close to matching up to that standard.

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