the drug rehabilitation program at Bridgewater State Hospital. After being hospitalized for three and a half months. he was released in February 1955, finally drug free. Boston Blow-Up! In 1955, Bob Martin persuaded Capitol Records to record a Chaloff LP as part of their 'Stan Kenton Presents Jazz' series. Chaloff's come-back album, Boston Blow-Up! was recorded in New York City in April 1955. He was accompanied by Boots Mussulli (alto), Herb Pomeroy (tp), Ray Santisi (p), Everett Evans (b) and Jimmy Zitano (d). Pomeroy, Santisi and Zitano were already a tight unit, regularly playing at Boston's Stable Club, where they had recorded a live album Jazz in a Stable, on Transition the previous March. The Kenton connection came about through Mussulli, who had played in his orchestra in 1944-7 and 1952-4. Richard Vacca wrote that 'Chaloff still had his bad boy reputation, and the presence of the steady and reliable Mussulli, who had recorded his own 'Kenton Presents' LP in 1954, was a great relief to Capitol.' For the recording, he composed and arranged five new tunes, including 'Bob the Robin', dedicated to Chaloff's manager. Pomeroy arranged the standards. Chaloff described the sessions: 'When I came back on the music scene, just recently, I wanted a book of fresh sounding things. I got just what I wanted from Herb and Boots. I think their writing shows us a happy group trying to create new musical entertainment by swinging all the time. Jazz has got to swing; if it doesn't, it loses its feeling of expression. This group and these sides are about the happiest I've been involved with.' The highlights of the album are Chaloff's powerful ballad features, "What's New?", and "Body and Soul". In the 1956 Metronome Yearbook, Bill Coss described the latter as 'an almost frightening example of Serge's form, moaning through a seemingly autobiographical portrayal of (his) Body and Soul', an enormously emotional jazz listening experience.' Jack Tracy gave Boston Blow-Up! five stars in his Down Beat review: 'Serge, for years one of music's more chaotic personalities, has made an about face of late and is again flying right. It is evident in his playing, which has become a thing of real beauty....Chaloff offers the best display of his talents ever to be put on wax. It swings, it has heart, it has maturity—it is the long-awaited coalescence of a great talent.'Boston Blow-Up!s favourable reception brought more