This is a remastered reissue of a recording of Albert Ayler’s first date at the Maeght Foundation, France (released to celebrate 50 years of Bernard Stollman’s erratic ESP-DISK’ label) where the originally planned quintet were stripped back to a quartet due to piano player Cal Cobbs being held back by customs when the group first entered the country. As such it lacks his rippling keyboard explosions that fired Ayler into producing some of his best live work. That said, this recording is not to be sniffed at as ‘Masonic Inborn’ testifies, where the full fury of Ayler’s acrobatic playing acts as the starting gun to set Blairman’s cascading drum variations and Tintweiss’s loping bass playing up and running, much to the delight of the audience. Supplemented with Mary Maria Parks’s scat singing intrusions and occasional soprano sax, Ayler carefully constructs a tightly woven web of sound throughout the set that finally unravels with a mighty rendition (plus encore) of ‘Ghosts’ where the holy power of his music takes hold. Recommended for all true believers of Ayler’s mystical musical genius.