Intersection

Since his arrival in America from Kiev in 2005, bassist/composer Ark Ovrutski has steadily gained deserved entrance into the NY jazz scene with his intuitive fusion of global musics and their vivid interplay, all of which is on full display on Intersection.

Bill Evans's imitable "Waltz for Debby" opens Intersection and finds this top-shelf quintet - trombonist Michael Dease, saxophonist Michael Thoms, pianist Helio Alves, percussionist Duduka Da Fonesca and Ovrutski - taking flight in a lyrical, exuberant instrumental ballet. Ovrutski's inventive arranging propels Wayne Shorter's "Tom Thumb" into a hybrid of styles that one suspects even Shorter never quite imagined. Protean and mercurial, all the players capture and release their distinctive energies on the challenges of the originals, especially on Fonesca's Manhattan-in-a-thumbnail "Manhattan Style" and the leader's expansive "Bolero." Intersection is beyond doubt the way to hear Ovrutski, but please do yourself the favor of hooking into 2014's 44:33 and 2010's vivacious The Sounds of Brazil.