Paul Bley with Gary Peacock

shares front-cover billing with on this 1970 session, but drummer is also present on the first five tracks. ( replaces on the remaining three.) There's a curiously straight-ahead, tempo-driven feel to this short and sweet disc, quite unlike the free aesthetic that , , and put forward when they returned to as a trio on 1999's . That's not to say the music is conventional: there are two tunes apiece by and one by , in addition to the lone standard, 's (The finale, by , stands out as the most abstract of the bunch.) The brittle, lo-fi sound doesn't detract from the album's historical value. ~ David R. Adler