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An unusual session for Robin Kenyatta – featuring the leader on alto and flute, plus Wolfgang Dauner on clavinet and piano, Arild Andersen on bass, and Fred Braceful on drums.

Three groundbreaking albums from reedman Jan Garbarek – packaged in a single set! First up is Sart – a great example of the way that ECM helped to bring the voice of the Scandinavian jazz underground to the world at large – as the album's a key showcase for the talents of budding young modernists Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Terje Rypdal, and Arild Andersen! The record's got a really unusual quality that's quite different from the more jamming fusion or freer jazz of the mid European scene – a sense that plays with space between the notes as much as it does the sounds of the individual instruments, and which seems perfectly cast for the newer style of jazz recording pioneered by ECM. Garbarek plays tenor, bass, and flute on the record; Stenson is on electric and acoustic piano; Rypdal on guitar, Andersen on acoustic (but amplified?) bass, and Jon Christensen is on drums. Titles include "IRR", "Song Of Space", "Close Enough For Jazz", "Sart", and "Fountain Of Tears". Witchi Tai To is warm and wonderful sounds from Garbarek – and a record that brings together so many strands at once! There's of course the obvious atmospherics you might expect from a 70s set on ECM – but there's also some sharply modern moments too – that harder sound that the label was endorsing while helping to shape the world of European jazz on both sides of the fence. And there's even some surprisingly soulful moments, too – not just from Jan's work on tenor and soprano sax, but also from the piano of Bobo Stenson – which rings out wonderfully amidst subtle bass from Palle Danielsson and drums from Jon Christensen. Titles include a great version of Jim Pepper's "Witchi Tai To", plus "Hasta Siempre", "AIR", and "Desireless". Dansere is one of the highlights of saxophonist Jan Garbarek at ECM – and a set that has him working with the well-matched lineup of Bobo Stenson on piano, Palle Danielsson on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums! The shape of the songs is a bit looser than before, but Garbarek and Stenson turn out to be perfect in the setting – opening up, stretching out, and breaking down convention – yet also never losing themselves in self-indulgence either. Titles include "Dansere", "Lokk", "Fris", "Til Vennene", and "Skrik & Hyl".

A very interesting batch of tracks – one tune apiece by each of the artists named in the title, recorded between the years 1970 and 1973 at the Festival Ljublijana, in Yugoslavia. Bill Evans performs a long, and straight reading of Miles Davis' "Nardis" with a trio that includes Eddie Gomez on bass and Tony Oxly on drums; Karin Krog sings a spare version of "Round Midnight", with only the bass of Arild Andersen for accompaniment; and Archie Shepp blows freely on a version of Grachan Moncur III's "Sonny's Back", in a group with Dave Burrell, Don Garrett, and Muhammad Ali. Perhaps the most striking track, though, is "The Creators" by Bobby Hutcherson – played with his group that included Harold Land and Hal Galper, and performed in an 18 minute reading that builds beautifully, into the dancing soul jazz sound that was Hutcherson's best contribution to jazz at the time!