Jazz icon Lester Bowie is given tribute here by conductor/composer/arranger David Sanford, who leads his big band through a collection of tunes saluting and giving reverence to the dearly departed horn master. The 5 reed, 10 brass and 5 rhythm team features trumpetmeister Hugh Ragin in the front line, but there is room for many solos throughout the creative originals.
True to Bowie’s legacy, the material ranges from loose and flowing swing (as on “Full Immersion”) and “Soldier and the CEO”) to a noir alley B-movie take of the bop standard “Dizzy Atmosphere” with the sections punching like Levander Hollander. Dave Fabris gives some fuzzy guitar with Mike Christianson’s trombone as they trudge through “Subtraf” while Ragin is hiply muted as he teams with Ted Levine’s alto sax on the late night atmosphere of “ Woman In Shadows”. Ragin is strong and bold on the title track, which gives each member of the sax section a chance to show their wares, and the sections bop till the drop, ricocheting off the walls on “V-Reel”. Just about every color of Bowie’s prism shines here.