Partly because there are so many exciting young (ish) trumpet players on the scene and partly because, for whatever reason, he makes so few new recordings these days, we tend to forget about Wallace Roney (and, for that matter, his tenorist younger brother Antoine) and what a brilliant musician he is. This is a reincarnation of a band he led from 1998-2001, but which never recorded. And it's a blinding album. The spirit of Miles Davis is there from the very start – a hard-hitting post-bop Patrice Rushen tune called ‘Around and Through’, with Roney's opening solo really kicking up the dust. The material has been carefully chosen and every member contributes – Buster's ‘Air Dancing’ dates back to one of the bassist's 1989 CDs; Lenny White's ‘L's Bop’ was written in 1982. There's also a haunting Tony Williams' waltz specially written for ‘A Tribute to Miles’ in 1992. The other two originals show why Roney has added young post-Coltrane tenor player Ben Solomon to his group's average age of 60 line-up. Wallace considers him to be the most important tenorist in jazz today after Wayne Shorter. He co-wrote with Roney the constantly expanding ‘Observance’ and brought in his own fiery ‘Ardeche’. Both are album highlights, along with the two closing ballads – Debussy's ‘Clair De Lune’ and the standard ‘My Ship’. Roney's mentor would be more than pleased with this extremely spiritual CD. Unquestionably five stars and – already – quite possibly my Record of the Year.