DESCRIPTION:
Date and location are inconclusive. Presumably from a date in 1972 at the Palladium in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, an incomplete recording–it ends during the bass solo–but at 20 minutes it's already longer than the commercial recording.
As Don explains at the start, the introduction is now opened up for the woodwinds (Vince Denham on alto, Sam Falzone on clarinet, Gary Herbig on oboe, and Ron Starr on flute–likely filling in for Fred Selden) to freely blow and interact. Milcho Leviev is on keyboards. The trombonist is undetermined–perhaps Jim Sawyer.
Milcho gave me this recording and told me that this was made after the band had been playing the chart for some time. By that point everyone now felt more comfortable with the tune than when they recorded it earlier on the Tears of Joy album.
The whole tune, except for the coda not heard here, is in 9. Often a 9/4 with two 9/8's (3222) nested inside. However, there is an involved rhythmic scheme where various other meters are superimposed on top of the 9 which virtually mask any sense of the underlying meter.