In his second recorded bid for attention, pianist/composer/ arranger Mulholland here offers an arresting collection of new charts for his Boston-area-based jazz group. With a starting point set somewhere in the more advanced thinking of 1960s post-loop, Mulholland moves ahead through several stylistic mile-markers, always with originality but never with disregard for the basic tenets of listenable music-making. The generally impressive soloists are trumpeter Ken Cervenka, altoman Michael Moss and trombonist Gary Valente, who puts Turk Murphy’s brash tailgate sound and style to new and hitherto unimagined uses, while the aggressive interaction of Mulholland, bassist Bob Nieske, and drummer Matt Wilson is also a plus.
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