This is the kind of album that could easily be overlooked, yet, of its kind, it's as good as it gets. Herwig, here recently in one of the most star-studded Mingus Big Bands yet to grace our shores, is one of the most outstanding warm-toned trombonists in jazz today, and who seems to become even more fluent with age. (He's also a mainstay of Eddie Palmieri's storming latin band). He and Ralph Bowen are both educators at Rutgers University and the latter is arguably – with Jerry Bergonzi and the sadly overlooked Antoine Roney – as adventurous and harmonically advanced a tenor player as anyone around. Throughout this ultra-musicianly, sophisticated set of seven diverse Herwig compositions and a reworking of the standard ‘All or Nothing at All’, you can hear why this writer rates Bowen – and pianist Orrin Evans – so highly. Both deserve much greater recognition. What makes this such an interesting album is that the constantly challenging contrapuntal interplay between the trombone and tenor, especially on the exciting closing track, Herwig's most recent original ‘Free Action Reaction’, which has no form as such and the blowing sections are over a pedal point. Listen to Evans – and the excellent bass and drums – under Herwig and Bowen before he too takes off. Up to the highest Criss Cross standard.