Basic Economy

4-STARS Ben Markley's name probably won't be familiar to readers. He's from Denver, Colorado and gained rave reviews for Clockwise, his big band arrangements of songs by pianist Cedar Walton. The band included trumpeter Terell Stafford, tenorman Joel Frahm and bassist David Wong. This new release involves his usual bass and drums team of Evan Gregor and Dru Heller, with Greg Osby as guest star. Osby has always been one of Markley's heroes and when he appeared locally, the two struck up a friendship. Then, four years later, Markley wrote seven songs with Osby in mind. They did a tour together, followed by this recording. Osby, originally with Steve Coleman's band, hasn't made any records for quite a while. Last time I saw him was with a quintet featuring pianist Aruan Ortiz. He's at his very best on this set, indulging in a series of stimulating inventive solos, most often in the upper register. His statements tend to drift in after relatively conventional modern trio playing, before taking off into unknown territory. He also contributed one composition ('Half Dozen'). I found the whole album totally inspiring and it ends with an absolute killer of a track, 'Autumn Air'. Ben Markley himself is an excellent pianist, very modern in approach, who deserves international recognition. A nice surprise!