Flute player and composer Jamie Baum, who plays alto flute here as well, leads a well-appointed septet through a program that deftly mixes modern classical (Bartok and Stravinsky for two), hard bop and avant-garde influences on "Moving Forward, Standing Still" (Omnitone). The result is a diverse, but still coherent, collection of music that brings to mind a movie score and the Jazz Messengers here, Detroit funk and a Middle Eastern bazaar there. I like it a lot.
Good playing by Ralph Alessi, who's got kind of a Freddie Hubbard or Woodie Shaw sound, on trumpet. (See "In the Journey.") Ditto Doug Yates on Alto saxophone ("All Roads Lead to You"). Tom Varner plays French horn on the disk, George Colligan acoustic and electric piano and Drew Gress bass (with a great solo on "Spring"). They're all leaders in their own right, which makes this kind of an all-star group and it sounds like it. I think I'll hear new things whenever I listen. "Central Park" alone is an aural feast.
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