Brains on Fire fuels reflection on the past and response in the present.

These eight extraordinary extended tracks, recorded in unusual conjunctions of master jazz improvisers instigated by composer/pianist Heiner Stadler for sessions held from 1966 through 1974, are alive with the passions of that era celebrating large, original works stretching the bounds of even the most ambitious music come before. As Stadler and his cadre of fully collaborative, creative interpreters brought immense smarts, skills and sensibilities besides sheer fervor to their enterprise, their efforts burn brilliantly now, throughout what's genuinely a new album: all pieces new to CD, two works (including the nearly 25-minute orchestral "In Bea's Flat") never previously released in any format.

Sounds that emerge, converge, build and flow organically, as if born of their own seeds or cells, though they are actually prompted by pre-determined materials—individual's personal, vivid expressions that cohere as collectively-contrived constructions of multiple dimensions, plans not obvious or maybe even evident though the supporting structures and concepts are indeed there—intervals, motifs, scales and harmonies connecting and collecting, roaring in one dense space and splintering into divergent lines that yet cross, eddy, or otherwise come together—music that flares from a spark and shoots out from its player's imagination while the materials that kindled it are drawn out or echoed by others of the company... Those are impressions and suggestions of what's happening in Brains on Fire, each a possible path of investigation towards more appreciative comprehension of the interactions that occur and/or conditions that exist to give rise to such distinctive and powerful art.

First, though, the artists. Stadler is a singular exemplar of the serious, contemporary American visionary, born during World War II in Poland, raised in Hamburg, emigrating to New York City at age 23 and within a year attracting such all-stars as the cast here on "The Fugue #2" to rehearsals of his unapologetically challenging scores, which bridged the perceived gap between contemporary "classical" and avant-garde jazz practices. Thoroughly versed in atonality, polytonality and serialism descending from 20th century European compositional developments, Stadler has also grasped the strengths of the American emphasis on performance, the infinite possibilities and irrefutable honesty of immediate, spontaneous music-making when that activity is practiced by virtuosi steeped in experience but encouraged to "excel over their characteristic ways and exploit their talents as they don't in their own settings."

When Stadler first presented "No Exercise," his opus 1 that opens this program, intrigued players from across the spectrum of jazz activities attended rehearsals to engage with unmet trials they realized had the potential of setting them even more free. Trumpeter