With its irreverent message to buyers to only pay a single album price for the double album on the front cover, and photo montage of King, the Kennedys and the Panthers amid the turmoil of the late-1960s on the back, this has to rank as an arch piece of provocation of the era. If politically, Thiele, whose place in history is assured by his seminal work as John Coltrane's producer, was inclined to make a statement, then he was no less forthright when it came to his artistic vision. The record is a grand sweep through the quasi-entirety of the jazz canon, taking in jungle swing, bebop, avant-garde and psychedelic-edged fusion all the while finding room for Beatles covers and excerpts of spoken word on the aforementioned slain icons, the shameful Biafran war and the plight of native Americans. The key question then is does it all hang together? The answer is yes for the good and simple reason that the producing, arranging and playing – featuring a cast of thousands that boasts the likes of Ornette Coleman, Tom Scott and Joe Farrell – are firing on all cylinders. Disconcerting and unsettling the music may be, but it also has an artistic substance and symbolic power that are true to Thiele's integrity and refusal to compromise. Not for nothing was the ensemble called Emergency, which was surely a sign of the times.