Here’s a gang of New York City heavyweights who have put in the hours. Daniel Carter has been working with William Parker since the early 1970s, and with Matthew Shipp since the mid-80s. All three had played together sporadically but, with the addition of Gerald Cleaver, became a serious quartet, as documented on Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1 in 2020.

This set of loose jams – culled from the same 2019 session as that initial release – proves that, when you’re playing at this level, you don’t need to be too hung up on rules.

Opening track, ‘Sunverified,’ displays the most affinity to jazz, with rapidly strolling bass and flickering brushes setting up an A-train momentum over which Shipp sprinkles fleet witticisms and Carter bobs and weaves. But the rest of the cuts are much less constrained by idiomatic convention, exploring chartless regions that are more free-improv than free-jazz.

Cleaver, in particular, seems intent on counter-intuitive approaches: on the duet ‘Blinking Dawn’ he adds a pounding pow-wow beat to Carter’s Ayler-ish altissimo; and on ‘Worldwide’ he sets up an isolated ride cymbal ping, patiently waiting for his comrades to coalesce in his slipstream. For all the risk-taking, it all sounds effortlessly assured.