Part of the historic wave of American expatriates who took the avant-garde to Paris at the end of the 1960s, Art Ensemble Of Chicago made several outstanding albums for the BYG label, notably A Message To Our Folks and this one, A Jackson In Your House. One could provocatively call the band ‘the other great quartet’ insofar as the four-piece made unforgettable music that defied the prevailing convention of the small group featuring drums and piano.

With Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman on reeds, Lester Bowie on brass and Malachi Favors on bass, the band is as arrestingly potent as it is soothingly tender. While they are first and foremost musicians, the players created something that is very much akin to a theatre piece or radio drama, with the passages of spoken word, poetry and zany character voices investing the work with a loose stagey energy.

A composition such as ‘Get In Line’, a playful dart thrown at military monotony, is a highlight, but the vast array of instruments deployed by the band almost make it an orchestra split into small units that amount to a cumulative tower of sound. Drummer-less but hardly percussive-less the music has raging torrents of momentum and a still water introspection that reflect the way Art Ensemble Of Chicago drew from all areas of black history as well as music to create something unique. A Jackson In Your House, for its humour and high art, is a timeless work.