Zoller uses three different quartets on this album to explore four originals, three tunes by Thelonious Monk, and two tunes by Herbie Nichols. The Dallas pianist inhabits the spare, quirky, playful keyboard zone associated with Monk and Nichols and adds interesting extensions of his own. The sound of the quartets (piano, tenor or soprano saxophone, bass, and drums) are similar. The saxophonists (Pete Gallio, Wayne De Lano, and Chris McGuire) have throaty tones and a knack for outside flourishes from time to time. The bass-and-drums duos (Mike Davis and Dennis Durick, Fred Hamilton and Garry Granger, and Carl Hillman and Mike Drake) work together hand-in-glove.
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