Something of a footnote in jazz history – his name is absent from most reference books – Marzette Watts is nonetheless a notable part of the whole story of the music's development in the mid-1960s. This fearlessly expressive session really belongs right up there with the much more fêted works of Taylor, Ayler, Ornette, Cherry etc and this reissue is welcome to say the least. Two things stand out. This is a sonic advance: Watts’ bass clarinet, Karl Beger's vibes and Sonny Sharrock's guitar create timbres that still sound unsettlingly fresh in 2012 and the combination of harsh, grated chords, blistering arpeggiation and harking, plaintive motifs stands as an obvious blueprint for today's prime movers such as Rob Mazurek, Corey Mwamba or Mary Halvorson. Secondly, one of the great achievements of the so-called ‘avant-garde’ movement was the increased flexibility of pulse that it introduced into arrangements. Here on all of the three lengthy pieces, particularly the very arresting, closing tour de force ‘Backdrop For Urban Revolution’, the beat appears to swirl around, drone style while the horns, vibes and guitar weave in and out of it to play short, darting lines or long, searing sustains. The result is an unflagging, indefatigable turbulence that is given both sinister resonances by the croak of Watts’ bass clarinet and much more gentle, almost reverielike sentiments by way of Byard Lancaster's focused flute work.