This 1982 LP from pianist Morgan – yet another alumnus from Horace Tapscott’s circle and member of the revolutionary Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension collective – who died too young aged just 49 in 2013, demonstrates that 1980s jazz wasn’t all slap bass, tinny synths and drum machines. It’s an extraordinarily powerful acoustic jazz album, released on Tom Albach’s Nimbus-West imprint, presented here in a wonderfully crisp remaster by Ray Staff at Air.

As a youngster, Morgan was a key member of Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, and through the 1980s and 1990s he kept that collective’s flag flying, organising the Ark’s songbook, running jam sessions, and keeping LA’s radical, community-minded jazz network alive.

Retribution, Reparation draws its energy not just from Tapscott, but other musical radicals like Cecil Taylor and Coltrane, and is a confident manifesto, politically charged with pan-Africanist and black nationalist sentiments inspired by Marcus Garvey (to whom the album is dedicated), and played with an uncompromising – but very welcome – directness. But Morgan is also unafraid to call on the spirits of more mainstream influences such as Duke Ellington and Herbie Hancock (as can be heard on the energetic but lyrical covers of ‘Come Sunday and ‘One Finger Snap’ respectively).

Danny Cortez on trumpet and Ark stalwart Jesse Sharps on reeds provide a powerful frontline, while Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector lays down the rhythmic bedrock for the declamatory blowing. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos bind the music together – and the title track, which he composed, is simply a masterpiece. A valuable re-release of an obscure, but essential treasure.