Rob Reddy's Small Town: The Book of the Storm

This "Small Town —Reddy's large ensemble—has created a massive statement that shows just where jazz composition, new music, collective improvisation and individual expression meet. The leader, though a vital and engaging instrumentalist, envisioned this four-part suite as a situation where he would not play his saxophones. What took shape, instead, was a huge structure that revolved around a core of musicians with whom Reddy has been regularly involved. It's a maelstrom of sound in which players disappear into the storm only to emerge as the powerful voices they most certainly are.

These are organic compositions that have a sense of architecture that allows the big picture to be more than the sum of its brilliant parts. "Spacious Skies opens with a drone that builds in intensity as drummer Pheeroan akLaff ushers in a dark processional march with horns. There's some sinewy group playing, and then guitarist Brandon Ross comes sailing out of and above the chaos.

Bassist Dom Richards begins the building process in "God Damn, and is joined by "strange guitar sounds and a mildly propulsive horn phrase. With all that as a base, there's another structure which needs to be built by the ensemble and the music suggests perhaps the kind of storm that comes to destroy a city, maybe a southern American city. Reddy has said that the music can indeed reflect that kind of turmoil and with Charles Burnham on violin implying a kind of melancholy blues, it's clear that possibly more than a god has damned—or not dammed—a place.

Reddy's music, though thick with colors, finds ways to let light in. Themes start to make themselves known—hear the vigorous "Fool's March that minimally yet with utmost texture asserts itself—and it's amazing to contemplate just how much music is in each of these sections. Somehow these players start to stand out and it's the talents of such unsung marvels as Burnham, Ross and Mark Taylor (French horn) that move these pieces forward and always bring them home. And even in the closing "Among the Ruins, there is a dark beauty that indicates the presence of an intelligent and thoughtful composer.