Bassist Andrew Binder mixes vintage jazz sounds with some clever and quirky ideas on this wide ranging album with a team of Justin Dyar/tp, Brian Stark/sax-fl, Frank Niemeyer/tb, Jose Gobbo/g, Kurt Reeder/key and Maxwell Osawa/dr. The tunes all seem to have a message in their titles, with the tunes themselves containing inside musical winks of the eye.
For instance, Osawa’s brushes dig in around a funky read of “Giant Steps” on the nifty “Squatch” while some funky soul takes you to Motown on “Stevie Isn’t Blind”. A hint of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters has Binder on a Pastorius-inspired feel on “Katy Is a Lizard”, with Stark’s flute flying over the pulse, while free from rumbling and fragments try to fit together on the puzzle of “Rush For Area”. The horns are swinging on the pretty “Birds Aren’t Real” and there’s a Steely Dan feel on the melodic “Avril Is Dead”. Enough cameos and floating hints to make up a musical Agatha Christie novel!