Got this one some ten years ago or so, when I stumbled on a nicely priced TOCJ. First time listening was done whily lying down to sleep on a living room floor after a friendly evening. Me and a pal put on this disk and listened while lying there in utter darkness, we were both wide awake all the while.
Melonae then as now struck as one big breath. Jackie's intensity is like an injection of pure caffeine and gives you no rest. Only when Davis takes over the time for breathing out all the cropped up air has come. Fantastic how the tension shifts from frantically outward to restrained and almost pretty. Fits like ying and yang. Higgins mutates like the millipede he is underneath.
The Powell ballad mixes these approaches more in real time, with Davis playing almost too beautifully and Jackie wailing over it like a big fat dragonfly, fiercely attacking the air on a lazy summer day.
Fantastic album, glad I took it out again.