JD Allen plays a lean, muscular and controlled tenor sax and powerfully compresses his Coltrane/Rollins roots into condensed statements of intent. Each phrase and line is etched with extraordinary precision. His recent CDs have been intense trio recordings featuring short tracks, concentrated bursts of improvisation and melodic themes that veer to abstraction. The seven original themes on this album are similarly austere, and Allen's playing is every bit as concentrated, but here pianist Orrin Evans adds warmth as well the extra interest of his sparse voicings and florid improvisation. Opening track ‘Jack's Glass’ hovers out of tempo, ‘A Throng of Millions Can be One’ floats over rumbling drums and the solemn unison theme of ‘The Secret Life of Guest Workers’ launches a full-on Jonathan Barber drum solo. Two standards find Allen in bittersweet mode, first as a trio on ‘If You Could See Me Now’ and then unaccompanied and playing beautifully on Hoagy Carmichael's ballad ‘Stardust’. And to round out the set, the mid-tempo ‘Car-Car’, begins with Evans' single note lines coming at angles and full of edge, and ends with Allen in the pocket and playing the blues.