Hometown

4-STARS The Hometown in question is Spokane, Washington, where trumpeter and composer Jared Hall was born and raised. On his third album for Origin Records, Hall salutes the hometown to which he has returned after years as a touring musician with a splendid series of his original compositions and new readings of others by Bobby Hutcherson and Thelonious Monk.

To help carry out his plan, Hall enlisted the services of four stellar sidemen: tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, pianist Ben Markley, bassist Michael Glynn and drummer Kyle Swan. Rhythmically and harmonically, it is a quintet with no discernible weaknesses. Glynn and Swan comprise a top-notch backup team, while Hall's bright and lyrical trumpet and Roberts' smooth and strapping tenor blend remarkably well. For his part, Markley comps impeccably and solos with ingenuity and assurance.

Markley's low-register keyboard introduces the titular "Hometown," as it does later the charming "Family Groove," which is almost surely based on the standard "Out of Nowhere," and a reprise of "Hometown" that closes the session. Hall also wrote the convivial "Step by Step," enticing "Echoes and Origins" and harmonically expressive "Room 111." Although none approaches flag-waving territory, every theme is well- designed and lands pleasantly on the ears.

Hutcherson's "Little B's Poem" glides easily forward behind perceptive statements by Glynn, Roberts and Hall, while Monk's "Ask Me Now," usually played as a ballad, is taken here to good effect in waltz-time. Roberts is present on every number save "Origins and Echoes," which Hall has to himself. When the two do perform together, the spirit is one of respectful camaraderie rather than fierce competition. Markley, Glynn and Swan play comparably probative roles, completing their tasks with a minimum of dubiety or pretense.

Setting aside, at least to some extent, his career as a performing artist, Hall has returned to Spokane as an educator, specifically as director of Jazz Studies at the city's Whitworth University (perhaps with an office in "Room 111?"). In that respect, Hometown represents both a farewell to one chapter in his career and a salutation to the next. A delightful and near-perfect way to make the transition.