OF all the albums that the multiple formations of the Mike Westbrook bands have made from duos, trios, to full orchestras and his present “Band of Bands,” the Live, 1972 album, now reissued, gives us the freest expression of Westbrook’s music.

Over half a century  on, its power and liberated sounds create an uncanny unity with the free improvisation much more common in now-times.

The guitarist on the 1972 album was the outstanding Gary Boyle, whose soloing throughout the album’s seven long tracks radiates the influences of Ornette Coleman, a strong dose of the blues, and if you listen closely on such tracks as Spaces, you can hear the far echoes of the sitar and his Indian birthplace.