On his previous release for the Sterling Circle label, trumpeter and composer
Ron Miles collaborated with guitarist
Bill Frisell to make an album whose relationship to jazz was fairly tangential -- the music inhabited some nether region along the borders of jazz, country, and folk, and not only because the program included arrangements of songs by
Bob Dylan and
Hank Williams along with the
Duke Ellington and
Thelonious Monk tunes. Now leading a quartet that includes bassist
Anthony Cox, guitarist Brandon Ross, and drummer
Rudy Royston, and playing a set consisting entirely of original compositions,
Miles still seems to be exploring that strange shadowland of American music. His melodies are attractive but not always immediately accessible; on "Parade" the composition marches gently forward, but "Psychedelic Black Man" and the aptly titled "Still Small Voice" are more abstract and contemplative. "Sunday Best," the album's shortest piece, is also its most tightly organized, and it has a definite country feel. Everyone plays brilliantly, but Ross, with his seemingly bottomless bag of sonic tricks and always tasteful application of them, is especially noteworthy. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson