Jamie Baum plays flutes and brings together a collection of songs and musical poems on this ambitious album that she has also arranged. Teamed with a front line of Jonathan Finlayson/tp, Sam Sadigursky/as-cl-bcl, Chris Komer/Frh, Brad Shepik/g, Luis Perdono/p-key, Ricky Rodriguez/b, Jeff Hirshfield/dr and Keita Ogawa/perc, Baum brings in various voices from within and without the ensemble to recite poems and messages under a post bop atmosphere. The voices are bookended by a pair of instrumentals, with Baum and Finlayson wafting over a mechanical pulse on the “In The L ight Of Day” that opens, and Luis Perdomo gliding through the rich reads on a closing version.
Aubrey Johnson recites “An Old Story” under elliptical and dark tones provided by Finlayson’s muted horn, while she gets jivey on the funky “Sorrow Song” with Kokayi. Theo Bleckmann is ethereal with Sadigursky for “In Those Years” and Sepiks guitar is sinew around Sara Serpa’s reflections on “What Kind of Times Are These”. The album could have worked as either a strictly musical or bohemian spoken album, but put together, the ambition is impressive if not just beyond the grasp.