It's not just anyone who can ask Wynton Marsalis to sit in. Ted Nash can, though, and more than that, he knows how to put Marsalis to work. On Nash's new release, "Still Evolved," he makes sure that Marsalis and other recruited luminaries from New York's post-bop scene don't waste a single note.
Nash also had some favors coming from the many group leaders he has played with over the past decade. And thus he was able to call on the talents of drummer Matt Wilson, bassist Ben Allison, pianist Frank Kimbrough and young trumpeter Marcus Printup. Though the two trumpeters alternate, each playing four of eight songs, that hardly disrupts the quintet's merging their immense experience into a tight group feel.
Their experience reveals itself particularly in the way they carve fascinating solos out of the different moods of the songs. On every tune, they have plenty of bop bravado, but deliver it with an ear toward nuance. On "Jump Start," the hesitant, hanging lead line has all the laziness of a New Orleans summer morning. Printup's trumpet plunges into juicy old-time wails, then emerges with handfuls of neatly arching melody lines. Kimbrough presents a workshop in soloing, hitting quick-witted chords and fast-fingered runs that sparkle, while remaining firmly implanted in the song's overall bluesy feeling.