Red Hot

This New York City–based group has gotten a lot of recognition in recent years, with band and individual members winning local and national polls. Red Hot is its sixth album and shows it expanding from a quartet to a septet lineup. Here, the quirky crew digs into jazz of the ‘20 and ‘30s for inspiration; the resulting music sounds like early Louis Armstrong diced and sliced by The Art Ensemble of Chicago. MOPDTK has long trafficked in sometimes-jolting eclecticism, with different albums having different aesthetic touchstones. Yet much of the material is written by bassist/bandleader Moppa Elliott, who meticulously maps out the tunes while leaving room for his bandmates to solo. Keep an ear out for bass trombonist David Taylor and the edgy electro-acoustic playing of banjo player Brandon Seabrook in particular. The openers—“The Shickshinny Shimmy” and “Zelienople”—have that hot-jazz swing feel carried on playful horn charts. The band dives into early-style blues on “Gum Stump” and avant-garde cabaret on “King of Prussia.” This should work for fans of Raymond Scott, John Lurie, or Rahsaan Roland Kirk at their most playful.