Reviewed by Eric Saeger
Given that he’s as comfortable with standards and fusion-workouts as he is with modern experimentation, it’d be correct to tag jazz sax player McCaslin as a firebrand voice of the current New Yawk pack. In this ninth solo record, he’s free as a bird, his flights accelerated by the whizz-bang keyboards (mainly Rhodes, a slam-dunkedly agreeable choice) of Adam Benjamin and Uri Caine. Quiet, simmering urban fusion kicks things off (‘Five Hands Down’) and, right away, McCaslin sets to making the thing a clinic, walking modal high-wires that at one point involve his sax making like a xylophone. His legend will certainly grow after wonks get a load of the million-notes-a-minute moves that shower the title track, new-jack wailing meeting the old-school notion of a serious, very serious jazz album in every respect.
Grade: A+
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIc0bC6EB1k
