If you’re an Oingo Boingo Fan, you may recognize Phipps as the horn-player, Sluggo. Unfortunately, few people know Phipps as a jazz musician. On this reissue of his extraordinarily rare solo LP recorded in 1980 and released on his own Dream Records, we can finally hear the emotional versatility of his playing. Pianist John Larkin, bassist Noah Young, and drummer Steve Larantz provide an ample background for Phipps’ playing, which ranges from John Coltrane meditation to Jimmy Lyons melancholy. Larkin’s piano is especially Cecil Taylor-ish in some moments (“Decision”), and more McCoy Tyner in others (“No End”). On the title track, Phipps improvises and overdubs five different saxophone parts, the result of which would make Eric Dolphy proud. Four bonus tracks from a live radio broadcast also appear.

Review by Chuck Foster

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