Man Dance is not an album one would have expected from a musician associated with such avant avatars as Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. Rather than make a record that aspires to the inventive freedom of his former employers, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson has put together an LP that stands as a collective statement. Above all, the Decoding Society is a band, not a group of dueling virtuosos. Even when the blowing is red-hot, there is always a conscious respect for the arrangement that unifies the group. In spirit as well as soulful ebullience, the Decoding Society is closer to the cooperative strut of Booker T. and the MG's or the Bar-Kays than to the jazz-fusion world.

Jackson's compositions are mainly interwoven rhythmic riffs set off by surprising musical textures. Just when it seems as if Man Dance has fallen into the jazz-meets-tunk-meets-rock nether-world, up pops "Iola," a country rag for two basses and banjo, or "When Souls Speak," a beautifully modulated ballad. And though the Decoding Society has no truly first-rate soloists, the musicians' instrumental skills are impressive. Listen to "Alice in the Congo": under Jackson's direction, the band moves from a murmur to a roar with enviable case. And, once again, the point is that they do it together. (RS 384)

STEVE FUTTERMAN