To hear the soprano sax legend’s superlative late 1970s quintet captured in its pomp, live at Willisau and Paris, is to hear a group of relentlessly creative musicians strive for newness at every juncture of a performance. From the first note of the first session the electricity flows through material that positively crackles with vitality and originality. Lacy’s ability to blend improvisations of great structural ingenuity with sounds that are heart-stopping for their primal energy is taken to another level when he swaps the ‘straight horn’ for a Japanese birdwhistle, but what is remarkable is the strength of the ensemble, with all its tightly meshed, overlapping lines and startling individual flourish which nonetheless does not derail the unified carriage of the music. Though Monk was Lacy’s most enduring touchstone, it is the spirit of Rahsaan Roland Kirk that is felt on occasion, with the siren-like urgency of some of the melodies, blasting upwards like a comet racing back to the heavens, that captures the imagination. This is a well recorded and nicely packaged 2CD set of memorable sounds.