“Great black music: ancient to future” is the seminal manifesto of Art Ensemble Of Chicago, but this thrilling trio led by one of its enduring members, multi-reed player Roscoe Mitchell, suggests that a possible rejoinder might be ‘African-American culture top to bottom’. An uncompromisingly gutbucket, barrelhouse energy permeates much of the material, anchoring the structural dot dash in a soil that is as much blues in intensity of sound as it is harmonic formula. A highpoint in this respect is the quite ecstatic ‘Chipper And Bing’, where the leader’s blend of minimal baritone blurts and cyclonic soprano works brilliantly against the backdrop of Baku’s springy treble-time snare and Taborn’s shimmering chords. But while the collective and cumulative energy of Mitchell, Taborn and Baku is notable the detail of each bandmember’s performance – the highly vocalised, weeping effect of the horn; the punctuating trill of the organ at just the right moment in an arrangement; the independence of the kick drum, its patterns sufficiently fluid to make it a double bass with skin instead of strings – that can be discerned on repeat listening is well worthy of mention. True to Mitchell’s well-established aesthetic this is music that makes much capital from the immediacy of its shifts from tranquility to hyperactivity, touching emotional and intellectual depth alike through a string of unforeseen forks on its long and involving creative roads.