This is the other band led by Chicagobased drummer Reed and although notably different to Loose Assembly it has comparable quality control. Very roughly speaking there is more of a pronounced swing feel to the basic piano-less quartet, whose punchy reeds are supplemented by keyboard and cornet on a few tracks. The spirits of Ornette, Mingus and Dolphy float over a lot of the material and any doubters on how energising a walking bass and cut and thrust unison horns can be in this day and age need do no more than lend an ear to the bracing ‘Sharon’, a tune by “the obscure Windy city alto player John Jenkins.” Having said that Reed's original compositions, particularly ‘December?’ are also worthy of note, above all for the vivid character of the atmospheres created. The piece in question is a languorous ballad in which the spare, drifting horns, skittering arco bass and eerie, unsettling tingle of bells create a charged setting in which Reed freewheels à la Milton Graves on the snare. As he shows elsewhere, the leader is particularly effective at low tempo where his percussive subtleties, liberal negotiations of the beat and astute punctuation of space by way of a single, delicately weighted cymbal crash or a discreet roll with the brushes enhances the often intimate, whispering nature of the music. Although this latest release perhaps lacks the immediate appeal of earlier Reed efforts such as Stories And Negotiations or Empathetic Parts, the playing, writing and overall ensemble chemistry have a strength of character that is hard to deny.