Represented here by John Stevens, Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford, Kenny Wheeler, Bruce Cale, Jeff Clyne, Chris Cambridge and on one piece a very young Evan Parker, Challenge is a slightly amended re-release of SME's very first record. Sounding at the outset like a rather conventional post-bop outfit, things begin unraveling immediately following the first unison lines-the the beat dissolving into a swirling pulse, with no signs of a chord structure anywhere. The composers (Watts, Rutherford and Stevens) were obviously taking their cues from Ornette and Dolphy, rubbing free-form against massed intervallic spans, an architecture which they would very soon abandon. In nightly performances at London's Little Theater Club, they would over time hammer their music into completely new and different shapes, and luckily for us, document much of the transformation. It is indeed interesting to hear where this music came from.

Also notable are the inclusion of performances from two virtual unknowns, then or now. Bruce Cale was at some point the regular bassist for the SME, now living in Australia and composing symphonic music, and though the liner noted here tell me that he played with "many of the leading jazz musicians" I cannot recall having seen his name before. Bassist Chris Cambridge is featured on only one track, which is apparently his only recorded performance. Said track is also perhaps the first (or among the first) recorded example of Evan Parker's playing. It is really not surprising to see just how far back in time this music stretches, but it's nice to have the evidence.