Here’s the latest instalment in Arkansas-based Mahakala Music’s mission to bring together unfairly overlooked improvisers and free-jazz big guns. In this instance, it’s the unsung Michael Marcus, a reedsman who recorded the album Blue Reality for Black Saint/Soul Note some 20 years ago, teamed with multi-instrumentalist and living legend Joe McPhee. The quartet is an unusual one, with the two horn players joined by a pair of percussionists – Jay Rosen on drums and Warren Smith switching between drums and vibraphone – and, between the four of them, they generate an impressive range of moods and timbres. Opening track ‘Love Exists Everywhere’ is a slow crawl with drums, vibes and flute, sitting somewhere between Archie Shepp’s ‘Le Matin des Noire’ featuring Bobby Hutcherson and one of Sun Ra’s exotic ‘camels at the oasis’ excursions from the late 1950s. ‘Chartreuse Tulips’ ups the energy with skipping drums and vibes laying down a free clatter while bass clarinet and soprano sax lock horns. And ‘Warren’s Theme’ is a tentative, dream-like mirage of vibes, bass flute, tenor sax and shimmering cymbals. Nothing outstays its welcome and not a note feels out of place on this high-quality date.