Timely reissue of a trio session that places the spotlight on an indefatigable legend, Brötzmann, and two brilliant Trane and Threadgill alumni, Ali and Hopkins, who really shouldn't be allowed to fade from view. Hopkins was once described by David Murray as the bassist whose like he was unlikely to ever see again, and his peerless performance here makes that hype wholly believable. The cast iron tone that Hopkins extracts from the instrument is a thing of beauty, often giving his single note lines the brawn and ballast of a guitar power chord, an effect that is majestically enhanced by the Indian drone and Moroccan guimbri implications of so many of his phrases. This string player's equivalent of a reed player's circular breathing comes into its own on the mesmeric ‘Old Man Kangaroo’ but Hopkins’ improvisations elsewhere, above all the prelude of ‘Man In A Vacuum’, are coloured by an immense melodic invention which more than matches that of his partners and imbues the group with a cogent sense of democracy. Brotzmann, especially on that rugged, ripping tenor, and Ali are both on good form, and very loosely speaking, they are the ones that swirl around Hopkins’ pivot. But the beauty of the session lies in the incremental shifts of position effected by all, and the seamlessness with which a deep country ballad can emerge from the maelstrom of high intensity rubato playing, a reminder that Rollins’ Way Out West is perhaps more relevant to the so-called avant-garde than some might imagine.