Ware describes in the excellent liner notes to the album his indebtedness to his musical and spiritual mentors, including Cecil Taylor (with whom he played in the '70s), John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Sonny Rollins. He adds, however, that there is a line between his playing and, say, Coleman Hawkins, and this is an important point to keep in mind as you listen to "Flight of i." Ware pushes the boundaries of jazz, but the lines, such as they are, had been laid down before him.

He takes, for example, the standards, "There Will Never Be Another You," and "Yesterdays," and reduces the melodies to their essence before he embarks on careening and dissonant aural assaults. You may wonder where the melody has gone. However, in taking on the song in this way he is not only finding the core of the tune, but disassembling it, as Coltrane did late in his life with "My Favorite Things" and "I Want to Talk About You." One can also hear reverberations of Hawkins, Webster, Rollins and other masters, as foundation to his own approach.

The listener meets his most challenging moments, however, on the title cut. After the excellent pianist Matthew Shipp lays down a hypnotic series of chords, Ware enters with an incredible sonic assault featuring long stretches of circular breathing that remind me of some of Hendrix's feedback barrages on guitar. The impulse for the unprepared listener may be to shrink away, but those with the desire to truly engage the performance are urged to hang in there, particularly if headphones are available. It's an incredible piece of work, one that requires technique of the highest order wedded to intense emotion.

It should be noted that Ware works with a quartet in the true sense of the word. Matthew Shipp, William Parker (bass) and Marc Edwards (drums) are far from mere ornamentation for the saxophone. Each plays an important role in the total sound that the group achieves. Listen, for example, to Parker's bowing as a complement to Shipp's chords at the beginning of the title cut. His playing intensifies the eerie quality that the two achieve before Ware's dramatic entrance.