Ah, look at the sweet puddy cat snuggling against Khan’s shiny pate on the cover. But don’t be fooled: Khan’s music, especially the free sounds featured here, bites, scratches and goes its own splendid way, indeed like many a cool kat does. Khan has travelled many worlds including the great Jazz Britannia ensembles such as Mike Westbrook’s plus the rock pages of Piblokto and Solid Gold Cadillac. But as these salutary songs remind us, he was also an unsung hero of the free jazz scene, notably with elements of The People Band. These cuts capture him in his fiery youth, notably at a ‘sit in’ at Hornsey College of Art protesting funding cuts. Ah, plus ça change. In sweet contrast there’s a trio recording from the mid-1970s with Khan in more playful mode: though Khan could snarl all the atonality of a miffed viper, he also had a delicate (honest!) sense of dynamics, and, as befits his theatre work, a great sense of drama: so solos build and surge, erupt then evaporate, bubble with humour, then weep and moan. Throughout all the cuts runs Terry Day’s indefatigable percussion, and it’s his efforts that have pulled this handsome package together. Ah, luvverly.