Drummer-composer Dickey has been part of the tight circle of New York-based players that includes Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Ivo Perelman, but he has been less visible as a bandleader than the aforementioned. This 2CD offering redresses the balance in no uncertain terms as Dickey presents two very different quartets that show the full range of his ideas and abilities. The first disc features the aforesaid players without Perelman but with alto-saxophonist Rob Brown, a longstanding member of Parker's In Order To Survive. Inevitably, there is a certain familiarity to this all-star unit, with the heavy low-end of the rhythm section being compounded by Brown's tone, which often comes close to that of a tenor. Yet there is a pleasing mark of distinction in the performance, and that is the invention brought to tempo and pulse. The whole set feels like one marathon ballad that often wheels into dance music and then not so much unwinds as dissolves back into a strolling pace, so that there is a liquid playfulness in structure. Dickey is judiciously subtle, with great lightness of touch on his snare, though the band reaches real grandeur on the David S. Ware dedication, ‘Suite For DSW’. Brown is retained in the second quartet but trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Michael Bisio step in for Shipp and Parker respectively and, generally speaking, it's a session with a busier, jumpier sound. Brass and reeds engage in a lot of bobbing and weaving as drums and bass subvert the art of walking into a kind of hopscotching without losing balance, evoking in the process some of the highlights of Roswell Rudd's best small group work. The result is a dynamic, high-energy record, which complements the first one well.