Sun Sol

For the first time on record, tenorist Seamus Blake teams up with his old Berklee schoolmate, drummer Marc Miralta. They each contribute three tunes, while the session's bassist, Avishai Cohen, offers the opening minor blues "Go." The one non-original is "Pure Imagination," the Anthony Newley ballad used in the film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Cohen co-arranged this tune very differently for Claudia Acuña's debut disc Wind from the South. The tracks "Circle K," "Now and Here," and "Mr. Omaha" build upon loosely flowing grooves and open-ended blowing, while "Boston in 3/4" and "70's Child" center around more lyrical melodies and structures. The title track, a quasi-African vamp, has more of an experimental flavor than the other tracks.

Cohen is never one to restrict himself to basic timekeeping; his playing here is characteristically aggressive and percussive. Blake and Miralta are both masters of their respective instruments, but it is their fine-tuned and highly musical interplay — the result of years of collaboration — that recommends this album. ~ David R. Adler, Rovi