Montreux Jazz Festival

Recorded in 1983 but not released until 1999, this live album features two tracks from Mandance (“Iola” and “Alice in the Congo”) and one from the then-forthcoming Barbeque Dog (“Gossip”), plus two otherwise unavailable pieces, “Mother’s Day” and “Zane’s Fangs.” Guitarist Vernon Reid dive-bombs in and out, as twin electric bassists Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson bounce off each other and off Jackson’s relentlessly driving rhythms, and saxophonist Zane Massey and trumpeter Henry Scott take Brecker Brothers-style solos, shifting from bebop to avant-garde squeals and howls, occasionally warped by electronics. Songs that were concise in the studio are expanded radically; “Alice in the Congo” was six minutes long on Mandance, but lasts nearly 15 here.