Spectre

On Spectre saxophonist Mark Taylor leads a quartet that plays straight ahead but with moody edge reminiscent of Wayne Shorter's Blue Note albums. There is spacious rhythm support on most pieces from Gary Fukushima, Jeff Johnson, and Byron Vannoy with Fukushima occasionally adding a layer of brooding electric piano. Taylor plays calm and lucid soprano on "Spectre" and "Fleeting" and unrolls expansive also lines over the rhythm section's slow sweep on "Ruse of the Muse." "Maia" and "Fompei"--which bring in electric piano--have a more funky down to earth air with shorter experimental pieces with touches of atonality and abstraction between the longer ones. Overall this is intelligent and forward thinking music with both melodic and spiky sides.