Trombonist came up with a brilliant idea on his last album in putting together material from the catalogue of composer Gregg Hill. He keeps playing the winning hand on this new release, but with a larger ensemble in Virginia MacDonald/cl, Sharel Cassity/fl-as, Rudresh Mahanthappa/as, Jason Hainsworth/ts, Matt White/tp, Nanami Haruta/tb, Bill Cunliffe/p-key, Katie Thiroux/b, Colleen Clark/dr and Gwendolyn Dease/perc.
Dease also doubles on baritone sax a bit, soulful around Cunliffe’s keys on a rich title track and lurking around an alley on the dark “Anthem” while his trombone is bluesy and bold on “The Stray Moonduck”. The horn sections get a bit frisky on the assertive “Nostalgia” and are bright and extroverted on a Stan Kentonesque “The Puppet Thief” with MacDonald’s flute shooting out of the ejector seat. Clark gets the band into a street fest on the bopping “Rue De Royal”. The percussion percolated under the semi-automatic work of Hainsworth and Dease on “Chillin with Wess” with the leader breaking the ozone layer on the white knuckler ride of “A Wrinkle In Time”. A hill climb worth the view.