This impressive concert was streamed in May 2021 as it happened, and was reviewed in the Jazzwise live section in July that year. A multi-media performance with visual artist Maria Rud, whose impressions of the music were painted live and projected to a screen above the orchestra, it added a certain drama to the event. Those performances, sans the visual, stand up to scrutiny on CD. Comprising four suites, ‘Ornette Coleman Suite’ arranged by Tommy Smith, ‘Albert Ayler Suite’ arranged by Geoffrey Keezer, ‘Dewey Redman Suite’ arranged by Paul Towndrow and ‘Anthony Braxton Suite’ arranged by Paul Harrison; each features a principal soloist – Towndrow on the first suite, Smith the second and Wiszniewski and Martin Kershaw on the third and fourth respectively.

The SNJO has been around for 25 years, and it’s fair to say it is now approaching institutional status – a benchmark of excellence in British jazz, Smith has always strived for the highest standards, be it in instrumentalists, arrangements, featured guest soloists, or presentation. Smith’s own playing on the challenging ‘Albert Ayler Suite’ deserves special mention, dancing in, out and around Geoffrey Keezer’s especially imaginative arrangement that embodies ‘Ghosts,’ ‘Going’ Home,’ ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ while responding to Ayler’s false fingering challenges to reach the kind of high notes that are best appreciated by Labradors.

Towndrow really gets inside the essence of Smith’s Ornette Coleman orchestration that uses ‘Lonely Woman,’ ‘Peace’ and ‘Broadway Blues’, while Wiszniewski plays with equal conviction on his Dewey Redman challenge that incorporates ‘Dewey’s Tune,’ ‘Joie De Vivre,’ and ‘The Very Thought of You.’ The quirky Anthony Braxton Suite is kept on course by Martin Kershaw in a classic case of saving the best until last. This is four star jazz throughout, no question.