A great introduction to a band who take commitment to a new plateau of engagement. One of the strengths of the UK jazz scene is its free improviser tradition. Go back to Mike Taylor. Go back to the late Keith Tippett and to the talismanic Steve Beresford and Pat Thomas for some intimations of its arc and flow. Lately the push for change, watchwords along with freedom, of the whole movement, has begun to pick up even more interest thanks to the quality of the musicianship at play and a continued willingness to be daring and mindful both in terms of the means of expression and the transformation of the traditions of the music itself. Certainly the directness of digital communication via streams helps a good deal. Released today Live at Cafe Oto recorded at the east London venue, a spacious place that has become one of the launchpads of the music in recent years, is a quartet affair led by pianist Peter Urpeth. Here with saxophonist Ntshuks Bonga in a John Tchicai domain perhaps and on double bass veritable lion of the scene Olie Brice out of the Henry Grimes sound a bit and the Beresfordian Terry Day on drums and percussion complete the Urpeth group. You might think of the Matthew Shipp approach in America a bit or reach back to vintage Cecil Taylor as well as homegrown resonances mentioned earlier in the article. Check out the particularly engrossing long second track for the overwhelming sense of protean metamorphosis. SG