Patto of course were always more than ‘just’ Ollie Halsall's boggling guitar, but from a Jazzwise perspective, his original voice, too soon robbed from us, deserves celebrating with these important reissues. Halsall came late, late, late to guitar, and like his equally original contemporary, Allan Holdsworth, his influences weren't other guitarists, and they certainly weren't underwritten by the Blues Boom. Dive straight into ‘Money Bag’ from Patto. After six-and-a-half minutes it remembers it's a rock song but until then it's Halsall bending time, vaulting bar lines, soaring over a maelstrom of beats. The intro to ‘Hanging Rope’ is even more scarifying: from this era only Ray Russell's Dragon Hill vaguely compares, but coming from a very different source; even McLaughlin's Lifetime work is infiltrated with bluff and bluster. Ye t Halsall seems to have arrived fully formed unless it's Ayler, Howard Riley or Keith Tippett (whom Mike Patto collaborated with) that you can hear beneath his wit and fluency. The BBC sessions added here are the stellar material, free form yet intricate, orgiastic but rigorous: in a month that's seen the passing of Allan Holdsworth, spare some precious time for Patto and the glory that was Ollie Halsall.