What makes the music on John Daversa’s Junk Wagon: The Big Band Album so exciting and so innovative is its Daversa-ty. As Bob Mintzer, the renowned saxophonist and longtime Yellowjackets member, puts it in his liner notes, “This CD is not Basie, not Ellington, not Kenton, not Gil Evans.” It’s John Daversa, big band music for 2011, not 1941. The arrangements, the attitude, the thought processes behind the composition, the level of virtuosity, reflect the world we live in and the state of jazz today. Junk Wagon, released in partnership with BFM Jazz, is progressive, not retrogressive, and every rich moment is one to savor.

Recorded in May 2010 at The Bridge Recording in Glendale, California, and produced by Tim Weston, Junk Wagon’s nine expansive tracks were all written and arranged by Daversa, who serves as the album’s director as well as playing trumpet, EVI (Electric Valve Instrument), piano and singing. A large cast of woodwinds, brass and a razor-sharp rhythm section bring Daversa’s songs to glorious, multi-hued fruition, anticipating each unexpected twist of phrase and new splash of sonic color. The basic big band is augmented by a bevy of guest players on various horns, plus several additional vocalists on the lead track, the stunning “The Bridge, Part 1.”