The Russian pianist Kuryokhin, was one of the most astoundingly gifted and original players to have ever played jazz, who died a tragically premature death in 1996 at a young age. “The Ways of the Freedom” is a reissue of his remarkable first album. A relic from 1981, when Russia was still the Soviet Union and playing free jazz in that country was almost literally a crime, this solo recording was paradoxically first released by Melodia, the state’s official record label.