Re-releases of rare bona fide jazz classics don’t come around too often, so when they do grab them. This album is one such – Farrell’s debut on the CTI label in 1970. Although he would go on to make another five albums on CTI this one is regarded, along with Moon Germs (1972), as his best work for the label. It has the then Miles Davis rhythm section of Corea, Holland and DeJohnette plus John McLaughlin, who would appear on all Davis’ albums between In a Silent Way and On the Corner, and would go on to international acclaim with his band the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Farrell was a highly regarded player in his day – he died of MDS in January 1986 at the age of 48 – and at the time of this session was at the peak of his powers. The gifted multi-reed man could enter any musical situation – bebop or modal, big band or small group, funky or free – and immediately put his stamp on the proceedings as he does here. Two years after this session he was a founding member of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, while his curriculum vitae of session credits reads like a who’s who of jazz. There are some great and enduring moments on this album – not least ‘Circle in the Square’, ‘Molten Glass’ and ‘Song of the Wind’, the latter song title used as the title track for a reissue of the album by CTI in 1974. Even 14 years after it was first recorded it was already recognised as a classic, something the passage of time has done nothing to diminish.