Eagle-eyed Jazzwise readers will note that I did an almighty blitz on Messengers releases by this lineup, not too long ago, and there's really not too much more to add except to say that they deliver as expected and so here we are again with ‘Caravan’ as the lead off. A much more sensible exercise would be to gather together the two other albums The Messengers recorded for Riverside (Ugetsu, Kyoto) as oppose to a scatter gun approach. Many equate the Messengers with a box of fireworks: explosive and bombastic. But then there's another more sensitive side, which is often overshadowed by the Tora! Tora! Tora! elements. Here ‘In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning’ and ‘Skylark’ are given wistful treatments, while ‘Moon River’ gets a jaunty up tempo make over with commendable solos from all three horns. Er, that's it until next time!