I have a vivid memory of being sat-in-with by Lacy circa 1991, and his occasional vocals have been an entertaining if eccentric aspect of several editions of the Mingus Big Band. On paper, this is just another method of ringing the changes on the composer's music, but the strong repertoire has four tunes with his own lyrics (from the early ‘Weird Nightmare’ to late ‘Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love’) and four with Joni Mitchell's (including the lovely ‘Sweet Sucker Dance’). There's also work by Elvis Costello, a librettist debut from Sue Mingus and, notably, the poem ‘Consider Me’ that Langston Hughes recorded with Mingus in 1958. Despite a preponderance of slow tempos, all the hallmarks of the MBB are here, with ensembles that are tight but not polite, and soloists who can come close to being over-the-top. Lacy still sounds eccentric but highly musical, flavouring but not dominating the proceedings. And I almost forgot to mention there are two newly resurrected Mingus tunes, one from the Epitaph period and one from 1974 – important and entertaining.