Danish label Steeplechase’s unerring commitment to acoustic post-bop has not waned over time. This release by tenor saxophonist Riley is really the company’s stock in trade. A well-drilled quartet sets about timeless themes by Bird, Rollins, Trane, Gigi Gryce and Ellington among others. As one would expect of anything produced by Nils Winther, the session is done with great taste, and the band convincingly captures the spirit of its salient role mode, the legendary Rollins-Cherry piano-less ensemble of the mid 1960s. Beyond the sly quotes of Eddie Harris and Freddie Hubbard it feels on occasion as if the players are a bit too neat and tidy, though. The jocular re-jigging of ‘St. Thomas’ from bright calypso to dark, backbeatdriven funk makes it clear that Riley, who sports an attractively willowy, Getz-stamped tone, and his sidemen are able to exercise a considerable amount of imagination. They just need to do it a touch more.