According to the liner notes, Roney has recently learned to shrug off critics who, simplistically, categorise him as a Davis clone. He's quoted as saying “I try to play things he didn't and other things he couldn't”, citing harmonic ideas from Hancock and Trane translated to trumpet in a Davis-like conception. Let's settle for the fact that Wallace is a simply brilliant trumpet player, who is constantly developing in a vein inspired by every aspect of Miles’ work and spirit. And this live date from NYC's Iridium Club last summer has arguably his very best and most positive recorded work to date. The up-tempo in-your-face opener is typical of Roney's funk fusion side, with great interplay between bubbling synth-based rhythms and the horns. And there's a wonderful Davis-Shorter group-type track (‘Metropolis’), where the band swings its butt off with contrasting tempo changes a la ‘Plugged Nickel’. But ballads dominate the album and Roney delivers poignant solos on them all. There's Brenda Russell's title track, the Jam and Lewis Janet Jackson song, ‘Let's Wait A While’ (which Miles would have loved) and a tune Davis only cut as a demo entitled ‘I Love What We Do Together’ (originally known as just ‘Al Jarreau’). Finally a completely solo track for Wallace's son (‘FMS’). The band – and, like Jeremy Pelt's, it is a band – is superb. Antoine (who makes frequent trips to Ghana these days) is, for me, the most underrated of current tenorists, also soloing strongly on soprano and backing up on bass clarinet, while Cuban pianist Aruan Ortiz (whose FSNT record ‘Alameda’ with Antoine and Abraham Burton is still a favourite) is a major asset to the band in section and solo. Buster Williams’ pupil Carter gets better and better, though sadly none of his – or Antoine's – compositions are on this CD, and Eric Allen's replacement Kush Abadey is more than aware of all the band's basic rhythmic needs. Like all Wallace Roney records, this improves with every play.