Thirty-five years on, this ensemble’s music still sounds as pure and searching as when they collectively emerged from Paul Winter’s Consort, though they’ve accumulated a few more instruments-not all of them acoustic-along the way. The quartet’s group marriage is based on democracy and trust, formulaic only in its open-endedness. Everyone listens to everyone else, responding in the moment as though the collective sound could as easily fall into pieces as into place, rather like life itself.
Guitarist/keyboard player Ralph Towner has the most tunes, with the most hooks, though the couple of characteristically gnarlier Glen Moore compositions contain the most surprises, as does his sinewy dance with his bass. Three group improvisations round out the hour-plus’s 13 pieces, the final five being a suite commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Newest-kid-on-the-block percussionist Mark Walker, aboard for almost a decade, now sounds like a chip off the old block. Paul McCandless’s soprano and sopranino saxophone work has come to sound as personal as his oboe and bass clarinet have for decades: often enough pretty, always beautiful, and right for the moment’s context, with more of an edge than in days gone by. Which also works as a description – and endorsement – for the entire band and this album.