I've liked everything I've heard from this group before, whether on record as here, or in live performance. Clearly, Armacost and Berkman are formidable improvisers with many strings to their respective bows but in reality for them this group is the thing. They've all been together for over a decade now and have a following in Japan where this recording was made during their most recent tour. Yasukagawa is back in place of Whirlwind's Michael Janisch who took over from him temporarily on Power of 10, their previous release. Inflate the initials NYSQ to read New York Standards Quartet and that's the clue to their collective intention: to take familiar classics and transform them creatively, even playfully. As Berkman says: “These are such great melodies, you can do almost anything with them,” and so they do. ‘Soul Eyes’ is taken at a spritely strut, Armacost's fluent tenor front and centre, Jackson's drums the epitome of industry ahead of Monk's ‘Ask Me Now’ with Berkman playing tag with the theme and then turning in a free-flowing, boppish solo over Jackson's rhythmic manoeuvrings. Armacost takes ‘In A Sentimental Mood’ on a slow tenor meander, Jackson's mallets providing a soft undertow before the title-track (by Berkman and based on Gershwin's ‘But Not For Me’) gets a perky reading, its nicely intricate outline prompting more literate piano from its composer. I especially liked ‘This I Dig Of You’, with Armacost's tenor evoking the Blue Note version by Hank Mobley, evidently a key influence for the saxophonist. All in all, an elegant confection made up of hard-driving, percussion-led intensity balanced by temperate versions of fine old songs, all those concerned at one. A winner all the way.