Pianist Pete Levin salute4s his days with the famous Gil Evan Orchestra by reuniting with some of the alumni on this fun and swinging recording of a gig at NYC’s Cutting Room. This band was best known for it’s weekly Monday night events at Sweet Basil, which became a kind of musical institution at the time. The team of Dave Bargeron/tb-tuba, John Clark/frhrn, Mark Egan/b, Alex Foster/ts-ss, Beth Gottlieb/perc, Danny Gottlieb/dr, Chris Hunter/as-fl, Tom Malone/tb-bs, Lew Soloff/tp and Dave Stryker/g are in inspired form, with Stryker sizzling with Hunter on the full bodied read of “La Nevada” that has Levin open things up in a glorious suspenseful mode. A real eyebrow raiser is the bold horn section read of “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” while Egan slithers like an anaconda around Jaco Pastorius’ “Teen Town” with Malone. The brass boogies through “Nana” with the best of the night are a pair of Jimi Hendrix tunes, as Levin glistens on “Little Wing” and Foster sears through a hilariously fun read of “ Stone Free”. Oh, yeah, now I remember that music can be fun!