Jim’s husky, sometimes searing, often smokey sax lines are the standout, taking charge on the impenetrable wall of chaos on the Velvet Lounge track from Chicago, or the Zappa-ish improv recorded at the Iron Post in Urbana.

The Trio performance at the Clown Lounge also features Godston’s straining trumpet and Wanek’s dirge-like basslines, the sum total reminiscent of Anthony Braxton, whose large ensembles typically include myriad saxophones. Yet Ryan manages a similar brass menagerie with what seems to be only one sax.

What must be remembered is the half-poignant, half-raging sax voice of Ryan, an instrumentalist whose respectable expertise is at the same level of his commitment to the hard core of the purest free improvisation, and the absolute flexibility of all the involved players, who – be it on a demagnetized cassette or in some more acceptable recording medium – sound like if the future depended on the ability to sideswipe genres, thus remaining delivered from categorical impositions.