The ‘lost tapes’ scenario is a well known, but in this case it is not just another session by a legendary band.

Israeli-Swiss saxophonist Ohad Talmor’s new music is based on the 1998 rehearsals of Ornete Coleman, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins and Lee Konitz, who mentored Talmor over some three decades. As much as the material will excite legions of Ornettians and Konitzians the world over for obvious historical value, it would nonetheless set the pulse racing even without this fascinating premise. The two disc set is broad in scope to say the least, with Talmor, whose previous works for trio and sextet have shown imagination and versatility, also covering celebrated songs such as Ornette’s ‘Peace Warriors’ as well as a few pieces by one of his other great associates, Dewey Redman.

The result is a kaleidoscopic view of the musical world of a 21st century visionary that skillfully combines the expected with the unexpected. The irrepressibly distinctive nature of Coleman themes – the playfully skipping, singing eighth notes, joyful swing and jolts of tempo – are retained, but Talmor contrasts this throughout with colours that are more muted and mysterious, if not foreboding.

His use of a large pool of players, brilliantly anchored by drummer Eric McPherson, ensures that the sound canvas shifts decisively throughout, and the enticingly shadowy, spectral electronics create atmospheres that are not at all incompatible with the rousing energy heard elsewhere. Talmor’s tenor, as misty and tender as it is robust and assertive, is heard to good effect throughout but his desire to extrapolate the Coleman-Konitz vocabulary into new territory, epitomised by the romantic sigh of ‘Quintet Variations On Tune 10’, which features the glowing harmonica of Gregoire Maret, underlines his ability to think and act on his own account while recognising his debt to those who brought a change of the century.