The most frightening musical term for me is “free jazz.” So it’s odd that I should enjoy this nine-minute noodle by the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

They are/were nothing if not free jazz, or avant-garde jazz, with all the associated horrors – silly instruments (party blowers, bicycle horns, wind chimes), silly costumes and face paint, and a lot of free-form parping and shaking.

Put it all together and it’s normally my musical nightmare. And yet…

The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, who recorded this in Paris for a French film soundtrack, somehow get away with it. That they do is largely down to that fat funky bassline by the marvellously named Malachi Favors and the soulful singing of Fontella Bass.

Together they give it a deep, funky RnB groove, while the rest of the boys – Ms Bass’s husband Lester Bowie on trumpet, sax players Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell – blow up a storm and join drummer Don Moye to rattle and shake whatever they could find their hands on in the studio.

The euphoric spontaneity may also be down to the fact they got the commission for the film soundtrack (Les Stances A Sophie) when they had just two weeks left on their visas in the summer of 1970. You can hear – and feel – the urgency in the performance.

Then there are those lyrics:

“Your head is like a yoyo
Your neck is like the string
Your body’s like camembert
Oozing from its skin

“Your fanny’s like two sperm whales
Floating down the Seine
Your voice is like a long fuck
That’s music to your brain, yeah”