Secret Exit to Another Dimension

I'll be completely candid here: this isn't my favorite jazz album of the year, or even the month. But I'm recommending it because I don't see it as my job simply to share what I like — it's my job to hip you to good music, and this album is objectively excellent, in terms of both the playing and (even more so) its structure and conception. Bassist Piet Verbist leads a trio that includes guitarist Hendrik Braeckman and drummer Lionel Beuvens, and they play a mixed program of originals and standards that shows off the group's exceptional skill at arranging, as well as its impressive cohesiveness as a musical unit. Braeckman's "Map Map" is an unusually complex chart, but wears its complexity lightly; Verbist's arrangement of Charlie Parker's "Cheryl" makes the tune entirely his own, and Beuvens' "Bridge House" is a lovely, floating jazz waltz with a chord progression that stays just on the right side of predictable. Verbist keeps his solos to a minimum — always a wise choice for a bass player.