On this second edition, Blue Note Records shows that it has a present and a future as well as a past, focusing on recent material gathered together by president Don Was.
The music focuses on paying tribute to jazz legend drummer Tony Williams, thus you get a lineup of guys lie Brian Blade, Kendrick Scott, Tony Allen, Chris Dave, Eric Harland, Nate Smith and Rob Turner behind the traps. Each stick man gives his own read, and you even get Williams himself with his vintage team of Wallace Roney/tp, Mulgrew Miller/p, Billy Pierce/ts and Ira Coleman/b for a hip “Juicy Fruit.”
Along with that, Chris Dave and the Drumhedz groove with bass clarinet and a humming B3 on “Native Heart,” GoGo Penguin has a fluid and busy trio take of “Creatures of Conscience, Tony Allen gets funky on “City of Lights” and Harland gives an R&B groove to “Taking My Time.” The fact that Williams is able to inspire such a diverse range of material gives proof of his influence. Inspiring in scope and breath.