If Eletktra/Musician was one of the key jazz labels of the 1980s, then this is one of the great jewels in its discographical crown: a superlative session from a band that had a perfect blend of youth and experience as well as a songbook that blended covers and originals to good effect. Son of Chicago jazz royalty, Von Freeman, reedist Chico had shown the richness of his pedigree on a string of excellent (and now highly collectable), albums for India Navigation in the 1970s, but this seemed like a statement of newfound maturity. The improvisations are extremely focused, Freeman's harmonic relationship with frontline partner Wallace Roney, above all their phrasal tag-games, is Wayne-Milesian circa ‘Second Classic Quintet’, and the composing is consistently good. To the structural elasticity of the Miles vocabulary were added Dolphy's seesaw melodies and no small amount of Freeman's strength as a storyteller. He comes into his own on two sharply contrasting tracks in the first part of the set. ‘Mys-Story’ is a haunting mid-tempo ballad which has a quiet intensity perfectly stoked by dramatic chord changes and shifts of attack, while ‘Talkin' Trash’ is a playful piece of lopsided swing marked by rich unison lines of bass clarinet and muted trumpet. Strong support comes from seniors Billy Hart, Cecil McBee and a piano-playing Jack DeJohnette, but it is really Freeman who stamps his personality on the session in no uncertain terms. It's one of his best albums, and its reissue is timely.