Jazz violin playing has certainly changed over the years. My generation thought it couldn't get any better than Stéphane Grappelli in his days with Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Then came the swinging Stuff Smith, whose records still sound great, followed in the late 1960s and 70s by Jean-Lucy Ponty, whose early ventures in bebop turn out to be a major influence on Chicago-born, now New York-based Brock, whose third album this is for Criss Cross. After Ponty, Brock discovered the Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert who died at an early age in 1979 and who was playing in Tomasz Stanko's band on alto saxophone at the time. Brock became entranced by his playing and includes Seifert's ‘City of Spring’ on this new album. Other highspots include classically trained harpist Joanna Newsom's poignant ‘Swansea’, an unusually major-key Parker tune (‘Segment’) and a littleknown Leonard Bernstein number from On the Town. But Brock's own compositions are of equal interest and he gets totally sympathetic support from an outstanding rhythm section, with Goldberg at his creative best. An outstanding violinist who deserves to be better known.