This dynamic, high-voltage big band collective, directed and occasionally conducted by rising star pianist and composer Orrin Evans, slams together a variety of styles on a frequently spectacular debut effort. One can hear the cheesy pizzazz of Vegas, the irresistible swing of Count Basie’s Kansas City, the rollicking hard bop found in urban jazz clubs and the avant-garde squall and thorns emanating from lofts and museum subscription concerts.

The 38 musicians who comprise the rotating personnel on these seven tracks are mostly up-and-comers from Evans’s hometown of Philadelphia, along with some higher-profile veterans from New York. Their playing blends savvy scholarship and a hunger to plumb their individual and collective voice. Recorded on three separate dates in the aforementioned two cities, the collection is suffused with electric intensity and bookended by a pair of jaw-dropping also sax solos — Rob Landham’s quicksilver phrases and angular ricochets on the opener, Ralph Peterson’s “Art of War” (arranged by Todd Bashore), and seven minutes of raw combustion from Jaleil Shaw on the closing, politically charged “Jena 6,” which culminates in a scalding cadenza.

Like most great big band efforts, the songs, arrangements, and ensemble energy conspire to provide both the launching… read more »