Without a Trace

The rain-slicked streetcorner tableau on the album cover of the Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra's latest release Without a Trace - streaming at Bandcamp - Is truth in advertising. In recent years the group have taken a turn into moody, brassy latin-inspired sounds, something they excel at. They're at Dizzy's Club on Sept 3, with sets at 7:30 and 9:30. Cover is steep - $35 - but like most A-list large jazz ensembles not named the Maria Schneider Orchestra, you don't get many chances to see them. This time out the lineup includes singer Carolyn Leonhart; alto saxophonists Jon Gordon and Jay Brandford; tenor saxophonists Rob Middleton and Tim Armacost; baritone saxophonist Terry Goss; trumpeters Nathan Eklund, Dave Smith, Chris Rogers, and Andy Gravish; trombonists Matt McDonald, Jason Jackson and Matt Haviland; bass trombonist Max Seigel; pianist Roberta Piket; bassist Todd Coolman and drummer Andy Watson.

They open the album with a an expansively layered, brassy cha-cha arrangement of Kurt Well's Speak Low, a feature for Steve Wilson's allusive, melismatic alto sax, echoed by trumpeter Chris Rogers. Watson's stampeding drums kick off a tasty series of chromatic riffs from the brass to wind it up.

With a stunningly misty wistfulness, Leonhart gives voice to the longing and angst in Reeves' moodily latin-inspired title track, Jim Ridl's tightly clustering piano ceding to Armacost's more optimistic tenor solo. Likewise, they turn toward Vegas noir in Reeves' broodingly bouncy reinvention of All or Nothing At All, following the bandleader's bluesy, bubbling solo up to a haggard, white-knuckle-intense crescendo.

Incandescence could be a Gil Evans tune, maintaining a grim intensity throughout Reeves' distantly Ravel-esque portrait of starlight over the French countryside. Vibraphonist Dave Ellson moves carefully, Ridl more menacingly, Wilson's soprano sax peeking and glissandoing with a relentless unease.

Reeves based his own vampy arrangement of Wayne Shorter's Juju on the composer's most recent chart for the song and beefed it up with bright banks of brass. Tenor saxophonist Rob Middleton's solo draws closely on Shorter's own modally-charged work on the original.

Reeves then looks to Alberto Ginastera's Piano Sonata No. 1 for the central hook for the album's most epic track, Shape Shifter, with gritty close harmonies, Ridl's Arabic-tinged piano and Reeves' alto flugelhorn solo vividly bringing to mind the most cinematic side of early 60s Gil Evans - although a relatively free interlude with Ridl leading the randomness is a detour the song really doesn't need. The brightly gusty closing cut, Something for Thad is a Thad Jones shout-out. Many flavors and lots to savor here.