As he showed on his heart-stopping Vietnam-themed releases, Bang, who lived through the horrors of that war as a teenage recruit, was a tremendously sensitive player. That is in evidence in no uncertain terms here and his passing last year lends an added poignancy. On the ballad ‘For Bea,’ where the violin's boldly sustained, lightly cracked melody has a decidedly Eastern slant, he is intensely moving and the power of his notes is well counterpointed by the discreet rustle and rumble of Altschul's brushes and Fonda's purring bass drone. The performance is a hypnotic caress. While the group is highly effective when playing either straight on the beat swing or whirling modes, they reach their greatest moments of inspiration when they jockey around with the time feel, as is the case with ‘Implications’ where Altschul artfully staggers his stop-startstop percussion against Bang's teasing pizzicato riffs, whose piercing high pitch makes it something of a wild harp gone AWOL from a classical orchestra. A stark re-harmonisation of Compay Segundo's Afro-Cuban staple ‘Chan Chan’ also works well, proving that able musicians can always rescue a piece of music that has frankly suffered from maddening overkill. In a revealing text in the lavishly designed booklet, Altschul makes the point that Bang copped some flak for playing a small axe like a violin on the Bronx streets of his youth. In this stripped down setting the little string instrument makes a mighty, manly impression. Bang is indeed the right word.