The title of this promotional CD, issued with the May 2001 edition of Musica Jazz, borrows from John Surman’s acclaimed 1981 album The Amazing Adventures Of Simon Simon (ECM 1193), recorded with Jack DeJohnette. Yet this Italian release serves a different purpose. Rather than presenting a single studio statement, it surveys more than two decades of Surman’s work across 11 tracks. The result is a compact career portrait that moves through chamber jazz, free improvisation, electronic experimentation, large-ensemble writing, and cross-cultural collaboration without reducing his music to a sequence of stylistic phases. Surman approved the selections, and the compilation reflects both his breadth and the coherence beneath it.

Said coherence lies partly in the way Surman treats each instrument as a distinct compositional voice. His baritone saxophone brings gravity without heaviness. The soprano carries a more naked lyricism, while the bass clarinet lets him work in darker registers without sacrificing agility. His synthesizer work expands the harmonic field and gives acoustic improvisation an unfamiliar frame. The accompanying musicians are equally distinguished. Paul Bley and John Taylor appear alongside guitarists John Abercrombie and Terje Rypdal. The bassists include Dave Holland, Gary Peacock, Barre Phillips, Chris Laurence, Marc Johnson, and Miroslav Vitous, with Stu Martin, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, John Marshall, and Tony Oxley providing sharply contrasting rhythmic approaches. Anouar Brahem, Karin Krog, Malcolm Griffiths, Henry Lowther, and Vigleik Storaas further widen the collection’s range.

The opening track, “The Returning Exile,” comes from The Brass Project (ECM 1478), one of Surman’s most ambitious ensemble recordings. Under John Warren’s direction, the brass writing remains pensive and spacious, leaving room for Surman’s bass clarinet to function as solo voice and structural center. The arrangement avoids using the ensemble merely for scale, its weight coming from careful voicing and restraint. “Nestor’s Saga (The Tale of the Ancient),” from this compilation’s namesake, follows with a different vocabulary. A delicate sequencer establishes the surface, while bass clarinet and gradually awakening drums introduce a physical pulse. The contrast epitomizes Surman’s ability to matchmake electronic and acoustic elements.

“J.S.,” written by John Abercrombie for November (ECM 1502), places Surman’s baritone within a quartet completed by Marc Johnson and Peter Erskine. The piece is meditative, though its calm is sustained by constant interaction rather than stasis. Surman’s tone gives the composition emotional depth, and Abercrombie’s guitar preserves enough harmonic openness for the saxophone to reshape its center. Johnson and Erskine maintain momentum without disturbing the reflective character. “Prelude And Rustic Dance,” from the solo album Upon Reflection (ECM 1148), then displays Surman’s overdubbing skills, as layered reeds form a rhythmic lattice around a buoyant soprano line. The surface is welcoming, but the deeper achievement lies in the precision with which independent voices are made to sound spontaneous.

Barre Phillips’ “Mountainscape I,” from Mountainscapes (ECM 1076), is among the compilation’s strongest selections. The track begins in suspension before opening into a free groove shaped by Phillips’ commanding bass work and translucent synthesizer textures. Surman first helps define the environment on bass clarinet, then delivers a soprano solo of unusual concentration and mounting intensity. The track also illustrates how well Surman works inside another musician’s conception, identifying its deepest tension and giving it melodic form.

The chronological leap to Nordic Quartet (ECM 1553) brings “Gone To The Dogs,” driven by Terje Rypdal’s gently rocking guitar chords and illuminated by Vigleik Storaas at the piano. Surman’s soprano adds a lean, silvery line that keeps the piece from settling too comfortably into itself. The performance is appealing, though less searching than the material surrounding it. “Across The Bridge,” from Stranger Than Fiction (ECM 1534), restores greater dramatic pressure. Surman’s bass clarinet carries the piece with remarkable suppleness, turning an instrument often associated with heaviness into a source of fluidity. His improvisation gives the track its narrative force, while the quartet protects its shadowed harmonic space.

“My Friend,” from Such Winters of Memory (ECM 1254), brings Surman into intimate dialogue with Karin Krog. Voice and bass clarinet remain distinct, yet their phrasing creates a shared emotional grammar. Krog approaches abstraction without losing human warmth, while Surman answers in lines poised between speech and song. “Tess,” from Journey’s End (ECM 1242), offers another side of his artistry. His soprano rises confidently, but the performance is most revealing in its balance of inner and outer impulses.

On Thimar (ECM 1641), his first collaboration with Dave Holland and oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem, Surman enters one of the most distinctive settings represented here. The dialogue between his reeds and Brahem’s pliant plucking avoids decorative exoticism. Their melodic languages remain recognizable while becoming mutually responsive, and Holland provides a firm yet mobile foundation. The track confirms that Surman’s cross-cultural work succeeds because he listens for structural affinities rather than superficial color.

The compilation closes with Paul Bley’s “Figfoot,” from Adventure Playground (ECM 1463), featuring Gary Peacock on bass and Tony Oxley on drums. Surman’s baritone is exceptionally smooth, though the performance itself is deliberately crooked. Bley’s terse interventions move against Peacock’s off-center line, while Oxley supplies fractured rhythmic commentary. The result is dark swing with dry humor. Surman anchors the instability without taming it, making the track an apt conclusion.

These recordings show that Surman’s versatility is more than restless genre-hopping. His career is unified by an ability to locate the expressive nucleus of any molecule and redirect it where needed in the moment. The adventure promised by the title is ultimately one of perception: Surman enters unfamiliar musical spaces, then discovers that the most difficult territory was already laid. It was up to him to tread it audibly.