The powerful all-star quintet
Opus 5 returns with
Pentasonic, the follow-up to their muscular 2011 debut
Introducing Opus 5 (
Criss 1339). It's a can't-miss lineup with tenor saxophonist
Seamus Blake and trumpeter
Alex Sipiagin in the front line,
David Kikoski doubling on piano and Fender Rhodes,
Boris Kozlov on bass, and
Donald Edwards on drums. Once again
Opus 5 puts original music by the band's members in the forefront, but the choice arrangements of Charlie Parker's seldom-heard
Charlie's Wig and Freddie Hubbard's classic
Red Clay bring unique and unexpected angles to the session. Moody and ethereal, rhythmically skewed, always furiously burning --- this is music that lives up to the name of everyone involved.