It's testament to the richness of Skid's considerable output over the years that this box set of almost entirely unreleased material devotes a whole disc to each of the six decades in which he's been active – and never once lets up in intensity.

The earliest recording catches a teenaged Skid jamming standards with his tenor-playing dad, Jimmy Skidmore, in 1961, followed by the fledgling firebrand playing the blues with Alexis Corner in 1965. But the collection really takes off at the end of that decade with the entirety of his quintet's gig at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969 (pictured above), playing assured post-bop originals as featured on his 1970 debut album Once Upon A Time. That performance was enough to scoop an award for best group – and launched Skid's international career as a major tenor heavyweight contender. Just over two years later, he's sitting in with Weather Report, trading licks with Wayne Shorter on a glowering version of Miles Davis’ ‘Directions’.

His adventures in the avant-garde are well documented, with the preposterously heavy ‘Dutch Dreams (Ali's Waltz)’ by SOH – his trio with drummer Tony Oxley and bassist Ali Haurand – forcefully demonstrating his penchant for mixing deep swing with trenchant free-blowing. He gets even further out on a 1977 percussion trio with Oxley and Tony Levin, with all three using drums, cymbals and gongs to build a transporting soundscape.

After a thumping turn with Elvin Jones’ Jazz Machine at Ronnie Scott's in 1988, the last couple of discs catalogue Skid's ever-deepening engagement with the oeuvre of his spiritual mentor John Coltrane, culminating in a heartfelt, reverent and utterly convincing performance of the last three movements of A Love Supreme from a show at Café Oto in 2019. Here, Skid's powerful tone and total commitment remain undiminished. It's enough to secure his place as the UK's greatest living saxman.