Ellery Eskelin, Five Other Pieces (+2)

The opening theme of The Dance Of Maya strained from Andrea Parkins' accordion is quite surreal. The arrangement of just three instruments; accordion, sax and drums works a treat, except a swelling in the forces could have transformed the main vamp from feeling so dirgeful. Solo space in this piece is handed over to a free form free-for-all which may indicate a problem in the arrangement or a lack of imagination, but Jim Black realises the constraints and displays intelligent use of his drum kit, Andrea Parkins pumps her accordion to fill the enormous divide between percussion and lead, and Ellery Eskelin's sax tone has beautiful sultry depth and is breathlessly laconic, perhaps better heard on tracks other than this Mahavishnu cover.

Tristano's April, Coltrane's India, Haden's Song For Ch , Gershwin's Prelude II, plus two other strong self-penned Eskelin songs, Cause And Effect and Ways And Means stretch the trio to provide the platform by which to show us their individual and collected skills. Solo opportunities are sometimes sacrificed for motif reiteration or extended skin bashing. Minimal use of sampling helps add texture to some pieces while the bones of others are laid bare. Like David and Goliath, this is a big repertoire taken face on with what at first looks like only a small pouch of instrumentation but on listening, actually, rocks.