Although the sleeve credit ‘…and the voices of friends and neighbors’ suggests a footnote, if not an afterword to the main story of this historic album it is anything but. The beautifully rousing chants, complete with high pitches – which suggest the presence of children – of the aforesaid choir may include significant members of the late 1960s New York jazz ‘loft’ community that assembled around places such as Ornette Coleman’s 131 Prince street residence.

We see those community members in the beautifully informal photos on the album sleeve: Pharoah Sanders, Leon Thomas, Don Cherry and Gil Evans all look typically charismatic, yet relaxed. The sense of a family gathering that nonetheless has focus is borne out by the beautiful music made by Coleman’s quartet that features some of his most able co-creators – bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Ed Blackwell and tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman.

Together they craft a cunningly loose, ambling ‘country funk’ groove that is enhanced by deeply expressive solos and pithy unison lines. Coleman himself sounds wonderfully relaxed.

The title track, with its explosive burst of back o’ woods fiddle playing screeching into life, is a gem, but so are the gospelised ‘Let’s Play’, the wonderfully stop-start ‘Long Time No See’ and the joyously humourous ‘Forgotten Song.’ It captures the innocence as well as the urbane cool of the two kids on the front cover.