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The first disc,features Steve Swell on trombone, Abrahama Mennen on tenor sax, Isaiah Parker on piano, Kesivan Naidoo on drums, Dave Sewelson and Nick Lyons on alto sax, William Parker on bass and drums, and the inimitable Leena Conquest on vocals. As much as Parker’s presence, both in composition and playing, make this recording the unique object that it is, Conquest’s vocalizing of Parker’s poems lendsits potency. One of the most surprising standouts is “I Had a Dream Last Night,” a longer, bluesy, borderline imagist meditation on a dream about a feminine Jesus’s second coming in the present day, backed only by rhythmic claps and what sounds like tambourine. Along with long-time collaborators such as Daniel Carter (trumpet and saxes), Steve Swell (trombone), and Eri Yamamoto (piano) and a newer musical comrade, Leonid Galaganov (drums),also features the mezzo-soprano AnneMarie Sandy.

Dave Burrell has always served as a very capable sideman, and his leading role on the BYG actuel released albumwas where I first became engulfed into his skillful musicianship.is a large outing with some of most well-known and respected names in free jazz at the time, and it really is no surprise that the album is quite difficult to get into. Most of the tunes end up having a clear melodic theme that is easily hummed and remained in my head throughout the day, and while he goes on during his fluid outward playing, Burrell keeps that theme in check for when it's time to come home. This album has taught me a couple things; first, that I should be on the lookout for more recordings of piano and saxophone duos (a couple of my favorite instruments) and second, to explore and enjoy the later works of jazz musicians. There's a sentimentality in the playing that becomes more familiar as the music progresses, especially if you're already familiar with the music of these artists.

On the opener, Coleman’s “Law Years,” Shadduck pairs pianist Cathlene Pineda and guitarist Jeff Parker on a radical re-voicing, doubling chords where Coleman often removed them completely. Where Shadduck seems to be channeling Charlie Haden, Pineda provides a Don Pullen or Anthony Davis–like voicing, with drummer Dylan Ryan at times channeling Bobby Battle. If it sounds like this quartet is a loving callback to 1980s DIW and Black Saint/Soul Note sessions, that seems to be what’s happening here (which is meant as a compliment, naturally).On the flip side, a double quartet goes full tilt on a pair of uptempo swingers. The lineup has Shadduck and David Tranchina on bass, Danny Frankel and Chad Taylor on drums, Alex Sadnik and Phillip Greenlief on woodwinds, and Kris Tiner and Danny Levin on brass.

In terms of sound and mood it is possibly close to " Prezens " (2007) or going even further back to his work on "" (1990).The first track, "", starts hesitatingly until Berne's sax enters, with determination and a strong presence, over a background that does not seem to be improvised at all - even if it is - but reworked in the studio, which increases the eeriness and the density of the sound, further emphasised by the industrial sounding rhythm, that is going full blast somewhere halfway the twenty-minute track. While Berne gets repetitive and frantic, repeating the same phrase over and over again, Torn's howling guitar increases the sense of agony and despair, using lots of feedback, not shying away from lacing his sound with harsh wayward outbursts, again more focusing on the overall effect itself than on instrumental pyrotechnics. The last piece, "", is built around a high-pitched moaning phrase on the alto, sounding mad because of its relentless repetitions, with electronic guitar textures weaving weird worlds of quiet sound, amplifying space in a way, expanding the cosmos in which Berne's sax mourns and muses and laments. When Berne returns, his sax turns violent and even madder than before, Smith goes berserk and Torn adds even more layers of dense guitar work, yet somehow they manage to avoid too much of a cliché ending, chosing to end in almost silence with Berne's lonely sax weeping ...