someone said that this box was better as an academic study than a musical listening. although i am a huge fan of '70s miles, i'd have to agree. guitar fans may find the most to like about this: two takes and two inserts for "willie nelson," including the part used for "yesternow" -- all featuring sonny sharrock. and then two versions with mclaughlin. mclaughlin is a very strong presence throughout. five parts of "go ahead john" -- blessedly, his solo that showed up on "big fun" has removed the fader (left to right) and fly-in-a-jar effects. and his blues playing on "archie moore" is terrific -- like nothing i've ever heard from him before. an unreleased version of "duran" also finds mclaughlin delightful -- "that's some raunchy shit, john" says miles at the end. an unreleased version of "honky tonk" is of interest. and the 23 minutes of free jam on two versions of "the mask" feature grossman, corea, jarrett, hancock, mclaughlin, holland, dejohnette and airto -- of interest, since some of these cats where going between free and fusion at the time. so not counting the much improved sound of the original "jack johnson" album, you could easily find room on one CD for the highlights. imho the rest is for somebody really tripping out on minutae and how the peices sounded before teo put them together. twice all the way through to pluck out the highlights was more than enough for me. there's a good track-by-track, blow-by-blow by rod sibley at allaboutjazz.com, if the site is up again. martin np. sex mob -- dime store grind ... featuring roswell rudd and several other guests. the best sex mob yet. moaning, greasy. electric slide trumpet sounds great. wonderful arranging and duke-ish use of individual voices, both in solos and ensembles. zorn-meets-wynton with funk, perhaps, but for all of the familiar elements i've never heard anything quite like it.