Absolutely essential quartet of albums from the alto great who has, sadly, not been heard for a decade now. One of the great post-Dolphy players, Blythe found an entirely personal way into and out of the ‘tradition’, or rather ‘traditions’. In the late 1970s his use of settings with unusual combinations of instruments such as tuba, played by the brilliant Bob Stewart, cello played by the brilliant Abdul Wadud, and guitar, played by the very brilliant James ‘Blood’ Ulmer, was an important pointer to the post-modernism of the 1980s and beyond, while the quality of the compositions is consistently high over this four-album collection. Blythe matters because he managed to find a way of developing the line of continuity from gospel to the avant-garde in a manner not dissimilar to Julius Hemphill, yet still very much his own. While originals such as the Monkish ‘Lenox Avenue Breakdown’ and the brooding ‘Faceless Woman’ are notable, Blythe's investigation of classics such as ‘Jitterbug Waltz’, ‘In A Sentimental Mood’ and ‘Caravan’ sparkle with creativity. A musician who understood the connections between different areas of black music and how the populist and esoteric could sit on the same pew, Blythe has a back catalogue that has aged very well, as this fine release makes clear.