Same festival, two years on. Nuremberg, Meistersingerhalle, 4 May 1974. Mal Waldron in quintet: Steve Lacy on soprano, Manfred Schoof on cornet, Isla Eckinger on bass, Allen Blairman on drums. Four pieces by Waldron.
AllMusic calls this and Up Popped the Devil the two 1974 records that best show Waldron's embrace of free jazz. Scott Yanow gives it four and a half stars, describes Schoof's jumps into the upper register as recalling Kenny Wheeler, and notes how different Lacy's piercing, abstract playing of this period is from his later lyricism. He thinks Schoof often takes the solo honours. The German notes for the CD describe Waldron's caustic harmonies and percussive ostinatos against Schoof's cascading virtuosity and Lacy's introverted, seismographic lines.
The original Enja LP (2050) had three tracks; the 1995 CD added a fourth for a total of fifty-one minutes. Waldron kept this front line together: the same Lacy-Schoof quintet, with different rhythm sections, made One-Upmanship in 1977.
Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Real Jazz Classics series.
