We also get three wonderful previously unissued bonus tracks: "Melody III" is another, more "busy" solo organ piece. "Melody IV, Part 1" is composed for a larger ensemble including brass and strings, with gorgeous tone colors and consonant harmonies overlapping and fading in and out — listening to it is a little like watching clouds slowly drifting above desert mesas. "Song 1" concludes the CD, and it's a livelier, repetitive, almost Celtic-sounding piece for strings (featuring revered eccentric composer/performer/avant-disco producer Arthur Russell performing on cello).

I first heard a tantalizing sample of Gibson's music when Criss X Cross #3 was included on the amazing collection, From the Kitchen Archives Vol. 1: New Music, New York 1979. Now, John Zorn's alternately brilliant and maddening (but still a national treasure) Tzadik record label has issued a live concert (recorded at a cathedral in Paris in 1979) documenting a more substantial chunk of Gibson's solo work. Criss X Cross #3 is there, along with #1 and #4, which are all performed on solo soprano saxophone. While the notes played are apparently derived from numerical systems (represented by that cool image on the cover of the CD, also by Jon Gibson), there is nothing mathematical or clinical sounding about this music. In fact, Criss X Cross sounds a little like a La Monte Young/Paul Desmond-ish hybrid with its jazzy intervals and loose improvisational rhythmic feel.

Also included is Equal Distribution #1 for "flute with harmonizer", and, while at first it's fun to hear the solo flute melody transformed into chords by this machine, it gets kind of old after a while (unfortunately, long before the 20 minute piece ends).

For me, the highlight of this concert is the opening track, Call, for solo alto flute (here's that wonderful rare instrument again). This serene, organic, incantory piece is mysteriously captivating, weaving a hypnotic thread of melody that has an almost Native American character.

Uncovering the long lost music of Jon Gibson reminds us that there was more to the musical revolution now labeled as "minimalism" than the higher-profile works of Glass, Reich, Riley, and John Adams, and also how far most of these composers have drifted away from the stripped-down aesthetic of the movement's early years. Jon Gibson's subtle yet remarkable music reveals a searching, unique talent that blends composition and improvisation, electric and organic, rigid structure and freedom of choice, visual and audio, mathematics and spirituality (no, not THAT kind of "spirituality"... that's the other Jon Gibson, remember?).

This is genuine, unaffected, beautiful music ripe for rediscovery... seek it out.