Guitarist and leader Jon Lundbom brings together his Big Five Chord band for a pair of eps that mix flexibility and swing. Lundbom brings together Jon Irabagon/as, Balto Exlamationpoint/ts-bs, Moppa Elliott/b and Dan Monaghan/dr for sounds and style that are reminiscent of vintage Mingus and Coleman.
While the sound is loose, it’s never incoherent and disarrayed, as the horns sway and swerve to the spacious pulse on material like “Ain’t Cha” which actually hearkens back to the bop sounds of Diz and Bird before Balto ! takes over and turns it into a hairpin curve. “Worth” has Irabagon sighing like Johnny Hodges while the take of Ornette Coleman’s WRU is filled with weaving traffic like Via Nazionale in Naples. Another Coleman piece, “Law Years,” has Elliot and ! making for sounds reminiscent of Mingus with Dolphy back in the day. They walk the tightrope with out a net, teetering but never falling on this white knuckler of joy.