A glance at the large amount of players used on these six recordings says much about Murray's role as a bridgehead between eras in jazz. The big band he assembled for the memorable Live At Sweet Basil sessions includes a callow youth by the name of Steve Coleman alongside the mature figures of Billy Higgins and Lawrence D. ‘Butch’ Morris. If the above were all coming from different places, aesthetically, then Murray, as this portion of his voluminous body of work shows, was going in many directions at once. Not so much a link between avant-garde and swing schools as proof of their points of intersection, the Californian saxophone virtuoso made music that was challenging and engaging in equal measure, no more so than when the extended palette of the 12-piece band gave him an opportunity to push energy levels to the max. Right at the other end of the spectrum is The Healers, the sumptuous duet album cut with the esteemed elder, Randy Weston, in which each player ushers the other towards lyrical heights as well as pithy rhythmic interaction. While Southern Bells, a clarinet carnival that places Murray alongside the likes of Alvin Batiste and John Carter is also worth a spin the two quintet sessions, Interboogieology and Children are possibly the most explosive albums in the collection. The former has some wildly funky moments courtesy of South African bass legend Johnny Dyani, while the latter is energised by the vivid presence of the guitar iconoclast James ‘Blood’ Ulmer.