Actually from Switzerland, brass-heavy quartet La Rex have been so inspired by a recent tour on the other side of the Atlantic that they recorded the album in Chicago and draw heavily on American jazz and other cultural references on their third album to date (and their first for Cuneiform). Wild Man is lively, at times almost rambunctious, yet the pieces, primarily composed by Marc Stucki, are poignant as well as playful, sober as well as celebratory. While ‘The Dwarf’ has elements of New Orleans and the album as a whole is indebted to the Chicago tradition of AACM, opener ‘Mole's Dream of the Prairie’ is reminiscent of Ellington while ‘Riff Raff’ verges on calypso. Also worthy of mention is the fourth track, ‘Mr Richard Keil’, if only because there should be more jazz tunes named after actors best known for playing Bond villain henchmen.