A potent reminder, not only of the early days of Shepp (under whose name it was reissued on Delmark in the later 1960s) but generally of early “free jazz”, when the standard to be emulated was the first Ornette Coleman quartet. To that extent, it's appropriate that the dominant voice for much of this is Don Cherry, who even dominates the live balance on some of these tracks from Copenhagen's Montmartre club.

Most items have him taking the opening solo, and the neo-Coleman ‘Consequences even has an AABA-shaped head with an improvised bridge and features backing riffs behind each front-line soloist. Everything is in straight 4/4 time throughout, except for the long ‘Trio’ which is in 3/4 (at the close of his solo, Cherry is almost quoting ‘My Favourite Things’). Tchicai is interesting and thoughtful, while Shepp scores on ‘Emotions’ and ‘Wo Wo’ with coherent lines and relatively little tonal manipulation. The brief read-through of ‘Monk's Mood’ was, doubtless thanks to Shepp, arranged by Roswell Rudd, and both Moore and especially Moses are a tower of strength. Fans of Shepp might like to know that VoL1 of this date is already out on LP again (Storyville 6017004).