[The Earl Of Slander]

Ignoring Glice being a tool, yeah, this album fucking kills. Tony Williams is an absolute machine. His confidence and control, especially for his age, just floors me. Like on, say, the title track from the Davis 'My Funny Valentine' live album, which is one of my favourite single jazz tracks EVER, he's like 19, playing with Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and MILES FUCKING DAVIS, and in the middle of Davis' solo he just straight up drops in this samba sounding drum beat that throws the whole thing spiraling in a different direction. Balls of steel right there.

That period in the mid 60s was such a beautiful time for this music, and for me 'Out To Lunch' is one of the great examples of a very particular approach, as also typified by Coleman, Cherry, basically everyone on the 'Free Jazz' record, as well as a few others, which found this special middle ground between structure and improvisation, very defined and melodically driven pieces with the freedom of free jazz. It's a bastardly hard balance to hit, because as you said, it just requires some PUNISHINGLY on the ball musicianship, and a hard to find clarity and reserve in the attitude to improvisation.

I wouldn't want to say it's like the peak of free jazz or whatever, because there will always be a place in my heart for just straight up burning jazz madness ala Brotzmann, or singular and abrasive stuff like Kaoru Abe, or whatever else arm of the music I love, but in itself it was school that I think was just wonderful, and that sadly doesn't seem to have been sincerely picked up on and run with by future players nearly as much as, say, 'Ascension' has been. It's certainly the real core of what I see as linking free jazz and Beefheart, for that feeling of the whole band just moving as particular kind of unit as much as anything else...