There's been an abundance of Ron Carter albums under his own name, outside of the multitudinous backing sessions he's clocked over the years. He recorded his own big-band in the US in 2011, and some of the 10 original pieces here are previously recorded but mostly unfamiliar to me. They cover a variety of approaches from the generic ‘Blues For D.P.’ (dedicated to Duke Pearson) and the bossa-lite ‘Ah, Rio’ to the palindromic ‘Doom Mood’. The arrangements by DeRosa are fairly conventional, with the treatment of ‘Sheila's Song’ being a rather transparent Sketches of Spain pastiche. Sadly, the soloists listed above are less than gripping, with the exception of tenorman Heller and trombonista Barnett, but the bass work (mostly ensemble playing) is of course superlative. The seven tunes replayed on the bonus DVD seem to be unannounced alternate takes, often at slightly brighter tempos, and they come with brief Carter comments about their titles.