On this album with bassist Scott Colley and alto saxist Benjamin Koppel, drummer Brian Blade lands somewhere between his trapeze work without a net when associated with the late great Wayne Shorter, and the more folksy bucolic material of his own Fellowship Band.
Blade joyfully converses with Colley on the bluesy sway of “Coconino County” and does some fun stop and starts for “Speed Cubing Rubiks”. Blad rumbles the intro to “37.33 Seconds” before handing of the baton to Colley, changing to brushes under the warm alto gloss to close things out. His mallets lay down a soft patter for Colley on “Imaginary Canvas” and puts down a nice pulse for the warm soul of Koppel on the clever “Alphabet Thief”. The most intuitive moments, and the most “Shorter-ish” is the creative toying with “After Time” with the three giving hand signals like third base coaches. Blade, as always, is double edged.