The other half of the New York Is Now session, which is, in a sense, ridiculous. Blue Note issued two records when they really had one. There were two dates, April 29 and May 7, 1968. Half the tunes from this volume and half from New York Is Now were recorded at each session. The CD versions contain all of the alternate takes and unreleased cuts of both days. Here, Coleman with Dewey Redman and the rhythm section of Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison work through Coleman’s melodic conceptions and harmonic constructs on five numbers, with alternate takes making up two more. Coleman plays alto on four tunes and trumpet on three — better than violin. “Airborne” is the most successful thing here in that Coleman’s music matches the rhythm section’s energy for the only time on the session. Redman’s tenor solo is one of the most bleating and emotionally intense of his career, careening across microphonics as he flats fifths and screeches through a series of arpeggios that cause Coleman to begin his solo at 60 mph at the very top of a scale and cruise through six or seven melodic variations on its theme before bringing it back down. Meanwhile, Elvin barely breaks a sweat and Garrison creates such a taut harmonic template for Coleman and Redman, they have to stretch. The title track is perhaps Coleman’s finest moment on the trumpet; he spatters his notes in such a way that across the B-flat diminished nine scalar invention, he picks up all the tonal qualities in the color palette and chromatically orders them in such a way that it sets up Redman with a prime opportunity to alter the melody of the tune one note at a time. Also, the bluesy theme in “Check out Time,” with its echoes of Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk,” is a nice touch, but it should have opened or closed the album. – Thom Jurek
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