Boy, if nothing else, you have to give credit to tenorist Donny McCaslin for not letting moss grow on his sax. Heputs himself in a plethora of settings, from big bands to trios to small bands. Here, he’s plugging in with a couple of keyboardists, Jason Lindner and David Binney, as well as a rhythm team of Tim Lefebvre/b and Mark Guiliano/dr, for a collection of originals that experiment with mixtures of sound as if McCaslin were performing with an Erwinmeyer flask instead of a Selmer.
McCaslin’s long legato lines betray the agitated underpinnings of “Stadium Jazz,” while he and the group go a bit angular on “Says Who.” Aggressive material like “Praia Grande” and “Bend” have a liveliness about them, while the mix of breath and electronics seems to work best on mellower material like the plaintiff “Losing Track of Daytime,” and even best of all on “Alpha and Omega” which mixes the leader’s echo-ed horn with some excitingly charged rhythms. Adventurous, with some thrilling turns that may leave you a bit dizzy when you get off the ride.
