Awesome write-up! Keep 'um coming.
I think for this album we need a third wheel, something like "didactic(ness)", or something similar, for which this album was a 9 or 10. This album was recorded just before A Love Supreme, as you mention. He was facing criticism over his "sheets of sound", which critics felt diluted the accomplished rhythm sections that backed him. Also, his favorite mouthpiece broke before this recording session. Finally, he had to record another album with Hartman the very next day. Maybe a combination of all these factors led to to the drums and bass being much more prominent, the sound more chordal (no doubt also due to Tyner being less prone to filling out the chordal structures), and less modal / motivic, as compared to the classic "Coltrane sound". The takes are instructive and provide insight not only into the technical issues JC had that day, but also his thinking about how to incorporate his sound. The title is a reference to a conversation he with someone akaik, about conversations flowing forward and backwards. Musically he was trying to express this on the spectrum bridging those before him and the futuristic sound of his modal improvisation that was to come. This album is a great insight into a great and evolving musical mind.