I got Far Side about six months ago, listened to it once, and put it on the shelf. I find that I have to be in the right place to hear Roscoe Mitchell's music. In that sense, his music is like Cecil Taylor's, Arthur Schnabel's, and some others. If I'm not in a place where I can give his music my attention - I don't know if I should say emotionally or intellectually - it's more a sense of allowing the music to come to me - if that doesn't happen, I have no connection to the music. And it's not that Roscoe Mitchell's music is strictly intellectual. His music just demands and deserves my attention.
Anyway, I listened to the longest cut on Far Side tonight -"Far Side/Cards/Far Side". The opening was to me a sound exploration making use of layers, tones, and textures. Roscoe Mitchell's blistering solo later in the piece reminded me of John Coltrane's late groups - seeing how far they could go and still make it back. Hardly anyone is doing that today and I was happy to hear Roscoe Mitchell still blowing like that.
I do hope that Chuck will continue to write about Roscoe Mitchell in these forums. I enjoy Chuck's enthusiasms and intellect, and Roscoe Mitchell's music deserves to be written about and listened to. And his music deserves someone with better writing skills than I have.