Canadian horn player Andrew McAnsh brings a wide ranging collection of originals together on this excellent and fresh album. He teams up his trumpet and flugelhorn with Jeff Larochelle/ts and PJ Andersson/tb along with a rhythm team of Chris Pruden/p, Ian Wright/dr and Wes Allen-Soren Nissen/b, Geoff Young/g and vocalists Mjaa Danielson or Mara Nesrallah. The voices are used as instruments, and used well, as they heighten the mood for either acting as a foil for Anderson in “Nara pt 1” or creating a recitative on the dreamy and gentle “Utopia pt 1.”
McAnsh uses his own horn judiciously, never hogging the spotlight, but sounds warm as he breezes along Wright’s ride cymbal on “Utopia Pt 2” while on the folk sounding “Confabulation” the horns lock together to create a herky jerky bump of a ride. Pruden displays his influence of Blue Note era Herbie Hancock with some hip work for the leader’s trumpet on “Seven Seconds” and veers between the colliding horns on “Illustrations Pt 2.” A mix of swing and adventure keep this music fresh and fragrant. Check it out!