Years before Miles Davis started wooing the rock and hippie crowds at the Fillmore and the Isle of Wight, there was another major jazz figure who was finding a ready audience among non-jazzers – Charles Lloyd. Lloyd's appeal stretched far beyond San Francisco's Haight Ashbury. He appeared at Fillmore West, but also at other hip venues across the States, and European festival organisers queued up to book appearances by his legendary quartet, which featured Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJonnette.

The LPs this group recorded for Atlantic in the 1960s – all of them huge commercial successes, at least in jazz terms – remain vital artefacts from the era, combining questing ambition with foot-tapping rythms and catchy riffs while mixing adventurous originals with deconstructed standards. The Flowering is one of those albums, a live performance recorded at Aulean Hall in Oslo. Many critics view this album as the quintessential live performance of this legendary group, and it's hard to disagree.

Side One opens with an inspired cover of Kurt Weill's ‘Speak Low’, driven by Jack DeJohnette's propulsive drumming and Lloyd's free-form riffing. The Lloyd-penned medley, ‘Love-In/Island Blues’ offers a contrast with Jarrett's soulful piano and Lloyd's evocative flute.

Highlight of the disc is undoubtedly Side Two's opener, a cover of [Lloyd alumnus] Gabor Szabo's ‘Lady Gabor’, retitled here as ‘Gypsy ‘66’. It's a mesmerising quarter-of-an-hour journey, replete with jaw-dropping solos and intelligent changes of mood and tempo. At the end, the obviously stunned crowd offers a delayed round of applause. The set ends with a medley, ‘Goin’ To Memphis/Island Blues’, which showcases wonderful work by both Jarrett and Lloyd.

As ever, Speakers Corner Records has done a spectacular job in re-mastering this album to 180-gram vinyl. The sound mix on The Flowering was always excellent, and working via an all-analogue chain, the label's mastering engineers have created a crisp, never shrill, and stunningly detailed 21st century record. The front cover painting by Jacques Richez, of Lloyd with a psychedelic Afro, has likewise been reproduced beautifully. An essential reissue of a hard-to-find album that no self-respecting jazz collection should be without.