Lux Quartet: Tomorrowland

Lux Quartet is a new combination of four musicians who are all part of the more progressive branch of the jazz world, pianist Myra Melford: drummer Allison Miller, saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Scott Colley. All four members contribute compositions to the band on this album which show off different facets of what the band is capable of.

Melford brings in three pieces. "Intricate Drift" has the sax and piano navigate a swirling, angular melody while the bass and drums maintain a steady march rhythm. "The Wayward Line" is similar but Miller and Colley rumble more freely before the rolling solo lines of the sax and piano come in. Meanwhile, the pianist's "Dried Print on Cardboard" starts with a tense piano-drums duet before Stephens' tenor and Colley's bass work over the melody. Miller's pieces have more conventionally jazzy structures but are full of lively details like Stephens' keening soprano on "Congratulations and Condolences" and the ramshackle tenor honking and piano dancing of "Speak Eddie." She also wrote the quietly solemn "Deeply Us" where Colley's bass sounds as deep as Charlie Haden's as it resounds against murmuring piano and hushed saxophone.

Stephens and Colley both add a single composition to the set. Stephens' "23 Januarys" is a mix of melodic tenor and rambling piano twirling over an active bed of throbbing bass and shuffling drums. Scott Colley's "Tomorrowland" ends the album on a positive note. Its dramatic but hesitant piano and deeply moaning tenor gain a feeling of anticipatory wonder due to the hopeful tension stirred up by the rhythm section.

On this album, Lux Quartet plays beautifully descriptive music that has emotion and purpose. All four members work together to create something subtly powerful.