Saxophonist Rob Dixon's confident phrasing and poised sense of time are grounded in four years playing with Illinois Jacquet's big band and gigs with the likes of Count Basie and The Skatalites. This album finds Dixon delivering fine-tuned cool on a classy JB's-influenced set of grooves and shuffles. His big-name credits were crammed into seven years working out of NYC. But since 2003 he has been based in Indiana, ‘The Crossroads State’, and touring sporadically, coast to coast – the album was recorded in Brooklyn, where ‘guest’ trombonist Ernest Stuart is based. Hence the album title, Coast to Crossroads, and an explanation, perhaps, as to why saxophonist Dixon isn't better known. The album's rhythm team is Charlie Hunter and drummer Mike Clark, and the saxophonist has toured with them both. Here, Hunter simultaneously twins warp-factor bass and picky guitar with organstyle vamps on his hybrid seven-string guitar. And with Mike Clark locked in on drums, the album has the springy, slightly off-kilter bounce that made Hunter's first recordings for Blue Note sound so fresh. The album opens with the masterclass of funky bass and drums of ‘Yo’, turns sultry on ‘Memphis Bus Stop’ and continues with ‘Millions’, the first of several shuffles. The two covers are Tupac Shaker and Dr Dre's ‘California Love’, rendered in a slow 6/8 and Terence Trent Darby's ‘Wishing Well’ delivered as light touch funk. Elsewhere, Dixon's originals deliver clean melodies and razor-sharp beats ranging from state-of-the art funk to back-beat R&B. Stuart and Dixon blend warmly in the frontline and solo with personal voices. And with Hunter and Clark a powerhouse of self-made rhythm, the album, though in style, avoids the generic.