RUBY BRAFF, JOE NEWMAN, SWEETS EDISON, JOHNNY GUARNIERI, MICHAEL MOORE, RAY MOSCA (Nice, 7. )

An absolute triumph -- not a cutting contest, but a jovial conversation among three brass legends (Braff, cornet; Sweets and Joe, trumpet) with a thoroughly congenial modern-swing rhythm section (the splendid virtuosi Johnny Guarnieri, piano; Michael Moore, string bass; Ray Mosca, drums). All of them are powerfully distinguished individualists but they have their roots in the same source: a mixture of florid declamatory phrases and subtle side-of-the-mouth whispers and in-jokes, loud blasts and half-valve