South London reissue specialist Pure Pleasure now seems to be repeating the superb job it’s been doing over the past year with the Strata-East label, with the almost-as-legendary Nimbus West imprint. Founded in 1979 by Californian impresario Tom Albach, who’d bought some tapes off Horace Tapscott with a view to releasing them, Nimbus West specialised in spiritual jazz, with releases by Tapscott, Curtis Clark, Roberto Miranda, Linda Hill and the Pan-Afrikan People’s Arkestra. The first tranche of PP reissues include Tapscott’s double LP Dial B For Barbara (reviewed on p52) and this disc by the Creative Arts Ensemble (CAE).

One Step Out is their debut, released in 1981 and which fetches – providing you can find one – £250 or so in mint condition (although there was a 2 x 45rpm version on Outernational a few years back). Razudun and his sister Cowley, both from Tapscott’s circle, were co-leaders of this fluid collective which made just two more albums after this; it’s a pity because on the evidence presented here, CAE were an electrifying outfit, more than capable of rivalling any of their contemporaries.

Inspired by Tapscott and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef recruited seasoned Arkestra regulars – reedsman Komolafe, drummer Phaeus, altoist Bias, Franklin on bass and Bohannon on trombone – and created One Step Out, now regarded as ‘a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground’.

The title track sets the scene, with its propulsive rhythm, BJ’s sanctified singing, Bohannon’s stentorian trombone and the piano swells so characteristic of this type of jazz. The superb ‘Flashback Of Time’, originally written for Tapscott’s Arkestra, features a swirling sax solo that gives way to a thrilling flute workout from Komolafe and this in turn travels to features for piano and drums, before reaching its ecstatic climax and resolution. Franklin gets to do his wonderfully elastic thing on the epic ‘All Praises Due’ and the LP ends with the wild, Ra-ish ‘Stars In Lightyear Time’, brimming on the edge of cosmic chaos. This is classic spiritual jazz in all its tumultuous glory – great sound too, courtesy of Ray Staff’s remastering.