This covers the first major steps of Bley's multi-faceted career and, despite deriving from four different labels, the sound is reasonably consistent and faithful to the originals. Bley's debut with Mingus and Blakey on the former's outlet is missing the extra tracks first released in 1990 on the Complete Debut Recordings, while the following year's Wing/Emarcy album (bass duties shared by Heath and Peter Ind) doesn't have one track later issued in Japan. Occupying the first disc, these two sets find the pianist playing standard repertoire, rather heavy-handedly but with interesting variations (his ill-recorded live material with Bird and Ornette is naturally omitted too). There's a more adventurous feel to the 1957 Solemn Meditation which has Haden and Dave Pike, with its conventional material outweighed by originals including one by Bley's wife Carla Borg, who also contributed the album notes. But then, pre-dating Paul's next releases under his own name, comes the first of two Verve sessions with the newly adventurous Giuffre, whose trio with Swallow gives the best hint of Bley's subsequent direction. A rewarding set, and more cohesive than you might expect.