Bill Dixon, Exploding Star Orchestra

In this incredible big band-style ensemble you'll find the likes of Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker supporting trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon. Spread across three long-form orchestral narratives, featuring various horns and woodwinds, guitar, piano, vibraphone, timpanis and voice. Far from being the muddled affair it could have become, the musicians each somehow find their own space to cut loose a little within the composition, with an accommodating, airy production to match. Of the three pieces, the twenty-four minute 'Constellations For Innerlight Projections' is arguably the most successful, based upon a video score (whatever that entails...) by Mazurek and dedicated to Dixon. In amongst the more impressionistic sequences there are passages of exquisite melodic cogency, lit up by wonderful, sparkling bell phrases along the way. A real treat for followers of the Thrill Jockey crowd, or for that matter jazz enthusiasts looking for something traversing the borders between free improvisation and more conventional composed jazz. Highly recommended. (Boomkat)