‘Small group, big sound’ has long been a consistent thread in the history of improvised music and this crack ensemble led by trombonist John Yao maintains it on this very enjoyable album. While the drums and bass axis of Mark Ferber and Robert Sabin is smartly cohesive and flexible in rhythm and pulse, be the accent on backbeat, swing or all points in between, Yao, and saxophonists John Irabagon and Billy Drewes make for a fabulous frontline where swirling counterpoint and busy ducking and diving see them build on foundations laid by anybody from Armstrong to Mingus to Julius Hemphill. In fact, if you can imagine the latter in the World Saxophone Quartet with “Ku-Umba” Frank Lacy or Ray Anderson as a brass guest then you have a fair idea of what this music sounds like, with its vivid mainstream and avant-garde resonances. Yao, who also leads a 17-piece orchestra and has worked with a range of creative luminaries that includes Danilo Perez and Eddie Palmieri, is a very skilled soloist but his compositions stand out for their knowing balance of intricacy and communicative energy, as if he is fully aware of the element of dance as well as the presence of intellect in the aforesaid references. Off-kilter and on target.