Although he would not have agreed, it may be that Russell was at his most influential during this period. Not performing publicly as much as he would have liked, he nevertheless made six albums with his small group – four of them in less than eight months. The most famous is Ezz-thetics, thanks to the one-off involvement of Dolphy, but the other sets and the other players (including the then-unknown David Baker and his Indiana colleagues Kiger, Dave Young and Joe Hunt) are very impressive. The initial feel is an abstract, intensified version of hard bop, exemplified by far-out takes on tunes by Miles, Coltrane and Monk. A couple of Russell's own (‘Ezz-thetics’ of course, ‘Stratusphunk’ and ‘Blues In Orbit’, both covered by Gil Evans) and a couple by Baker (‘Kentucky Oysters’ and the great ‘Honesty’) also fall within that description. But other originals by Russell and the group members (plus five early Carla Bley items) take things further, while George's actual playing – which he'd never paraded in public before 1960 – is hugely stimulating. And then there's that mournful version of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ featuring Sheila Jordan, heard twice here. The two live sets (from Music Inn in 1960 and the Newport Festival 1964, the latter with Thad Jones and John Gilmore) amount to just over an hour of previously unreleased music, and complement an exemplary reissue.