“This town hall meeting of a band makes the kind of jazz that nearly everyone could agree to call jazz. There are layers of squirming saxes, bright piano and serious brass blasts — low–end, high–note, and mid–range alike — tied together with a surplus of swing. But it doesn’t sound stuck in a misremembered era — there are jutting edges to the writing, and they’re played with a fashionably loose vibe. (As analogues, think of contemporary big bands led by trumpeters Roy Hargrove, or Nicholas Payton, or Charles Tolliver, or even the Charles Mingus repertory group, which Orrin Evans has served in.) And no soloist is afraid to hold anything back: There’s audacity of spirit here.” – Patrick Jarenwattananon, NPR Music, 3/20/2011.
