So prominent is his association with Keith Jarrett in the contemporary jazz consciousness, it is overlooked, if not known at all, that Jack DeJohnette used to jam with college classmates Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threagill back on Chicago's South Side in 1962, before the three became members of Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band. Over five decades later the juniors who are now seniors reunite, along with bassist Larry Gray, for what is a grand consolidation of that chemistry. Held, somewhat fittingly at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival, this Special ‘Legends’ Edition, in reference to DeJonette's longstanding Special Edition ensembles, is a great tribute to the spirit of adventure and defiance of musical convention that powered the AACM into which Abrams' Experimental Band evolved. Deftly playing the trump card of the tight group with wide sonic horizons, the quintet makes great use of the relatively uncommon timbres of Mitchell's and Threadgill's arsenal of wind instruments, especially the low, hazy purr of a bass flute and the jaunty hark of a bass recorder, both of which imbue the session with a deeply misterioso ambiance. Even more impressive is the fluidity of harmony and pulse on the epic pieces, none more so than DeJohnette's ‘Museum Of Time’, where a floating legato tempo is both enhanced by the vaporous swirls of the two reeds and unsettled by the tightly controlled rhythmic spikes of the piano. An equally gripping display of this kind of juxtaposition follows on Threadgill's ‘Leave Don't Go Away’ where the edgy bluesiness is handled with a feather-on-skin sensitivity, DeJohnette's backbeat powers rather than overpowers, the reeds simmer rather than boil, the arrangement is expressive rather than clinically demonstrative. Then again this is music made by masters whose virtuosity is matched by their sense of measure.