Bob Berg died in a traffic accident in 2002; he was 51. The shorthand view is that he was a fine and forceful tenor player but in the shadow of Michael Brecker. That is probably inevitable: he followed Brecker in the Horace Silver band where he played alongside Harrell and Brecker was such a dominant presence in Berg’s later years that every other tenor saxophonist was at risk of getting lost in the gloom. This, his debut album, is a good place to go to re-evaluate his contribution. It’s a delight from start to finish, the band is lively and filled with distinct voices, and the programme mixes originals (one Berg, two Harrells, one Foster) with two shrewdly adapted standards which would have opened each side on the vinyl original. ‘You’re My Thrill’ and ‘This Masquerade’, the latter given pop-jazz fame by George Benson two years previously, are both enlivened by latin arrangements, Figueroa very much the octane booster. Harrell’s ‘Shapes’ is in the Brecker Bros groove-funk area and Berg’s solo is a stormer. The quartet of electric piano, electric bass, drums and conga locked in behind is a treat all on its own. ‘Magic Carpet’, also by Harrell, shows a looser, dreamier feel but is no less effective. Berg blends Middle Eastern harmonies in with his complex, Traneish constructions and puts it all across with the incendiary power of a bush fire. Presumably it was a tightly- controlled session because the extra track is a Cedar Walton solo.