Although this is billed as a Shepp-Dixon release it is a welcome overview of some of the important sessions that each man undertook between the early and mid-1960s. In addition to the quartet album jointly credited to the saxophonist and trumpeter there is the record Shepp cut with the New York Contemporary Five and some takes of the Dixon Septet that featured such as Ken McIntyre and David Izenzon. Although there is substantial stylistic difference between the three sets of music, the common denominator is really the strength of character of the soloists and the idiosyncrasy of the writing. These artists gave rise to the term ‘new music’ and that seems something of a meaningful paradox insofar as much of the material, certainly in Shepp’s case, is underpinned by a distinct sense of the most ancestral, deliciously ‘old time’ country blues. Dixon’s aesthetic is generally more austere and his tone, hauntingly parched at times, stands as a potent counterpoint to the piercing joy of the other horns around him, none more so than McIntyre’s oboe. Historic sessions that sound anything but dated.