Based in Philadelphia at the height of the avant-garde black expression movement of the early 1970s, Sounds Of Liberation were a free flowing group of musicians who reached out and encouraged creative development within their community. Featuring vibraphonist Khan Jamal, alto sax player Byard Lancaster and electric guitarist Monnette Sudier as the core players, the group's style roved around latin, Afro-beat, raw funk and free jazz within their tightly packed and constantly shifting set – here captured live in 1973 at New York's Columbia University where they were playing support to Yusef Lateef.

Spiritualised jazz was at the forefront of their musical mission, taking their cue from Coltrane and Sun Ra, with perhaps a twist of Carlos Santana for extra spice. Both ‘Thoughts’ and ‘Keno’ are unremarkable yet pleasant enough introductory pieces, where the group slowly warms up before entering Lancaster's ‘Sweet Evil Mist’. Here the gloves are suddenly pulled off as they tear into a fury of street funk driven free jazz, with Lancaster's distorted horn suddenly exploding midway with a speaker shaking velocity. End track ‘New Horizons’ sinks back into a more mellow groove, a group chant that echoes ‘Space Is The Place’, but one that attempts to advance Ra's message of cosmic hope rather than lazily repeat what has already been said.