These days, Gary Bartz is probably best known for his stint with Miles Davis at the very beginning of the 1970s, and for helping to define the sound of soulful, streetwise funk-jazz as the decade continued. But, just before all that, he was deeply immersed in the post-Coltrane spiritual jazz that blossomed at the end of the 1960s. With Rashied Ali stirring up thick polyrhythms behind the kit, this live set, recorded at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Bartz's hometown of Baltimore, makes that connection crystal clear. Bartz's alto, on cuts like ‘B.A.M.’ and his theme tune ‘Rise’, flirts with the very edge of the raw, overblown harmonics more often heard in the avant-garde of the time, but the session remains resolutely ‘in’, riding on a relentless and irresistible sense of swing. An ebullient, up-tempo closing romp through Ellington's ‘It Don't Mean A Thing’ seals the deal nicely.

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