Fast Last!

In the latter half of the 1970s, the Art Ensemble of Chicago were on hiatus, and trumpeter Lester Bowie made this solo album, which features an absolutely killer roster of players: his brother Joseph Bowie on trombone, Julius Hemphill on alto sax, John Stubblefield on tenor sax, John Hicks on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Phillip Wilson on drums (joined on the final track, “F-Troop Rides Again,” by Jerome Cooper and Charles Bobo Shaw). Wide-ranging yet still cohesive, Fast Last!’s high points include a mournful version of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” a sputtering, squalling trumpet-piano reading of “Hello Dolly,” and a medley of the Bowie-penned title piece and Julius Hemphill’s “C.”