Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist Elsaffar expands his renowned sextet Two Rivers into a 17-piece orchestra, Rivers Of Sound, and the result is sufficiently grandiose, majestic music to justify the larger scale the leader has chosen for his ideas. Even on the shorter pieces the themes and counterpoint are so soul stirring that they create a sense of both the epic and the ecstatic, which is the raison d'etre of the ages-old Middle Eastern ‘maquams’ or modes that form the foundation of the work. While the composing is strong, it is really the deployment of the substantial resources that is most impressive. The range of nuances of each piece, the carefully managed movement from crescendo to diminuendo among the brass and reeds, the sense that every composition is a mini-suite within the suite: these traits are superb, enabling Elsaffar to create an orchestral work that retains a small group dynamism and narrative stealth. Some of the best soloists on the New York and Chicago scenes are featured but the end result is still a collective rhapsody, in which certain sounds, whether a soar of quarter tones from the strings or a hissing of vibraphone and percussion, slide in and out of focus to good effect. To a certain extent Craig Taborn's piano, which blurs melody, rhythm and soundscape with siren tension, is almost an interface between all of the above. Ultimately, Elsaffar's greatest achievement here is the strong undercurrent of lyric poetry running through the performance. There is an intimacy, both comforting and questioning, created by a band that evokes much stir and solace in its handling of very ambitious scores.