Ben Allison - Little Things Run the World

Up late taking a break from a marathon Reason programming session, digging on the latest Ben Allison joint, Little Things Run the World. I heard a piece on him on NPR a while back, and had to order the record as soon as I got home. He's a bass player-cum-band leader, and his compositional and arrangement skills are mad, to say the least. The first track, "Respiration," features some deliciously skanky guitar by Steve Cardenas that brings to mind Nels Cline or Marc Ribot. The band as a whole works together to create propulsive grooves with complex tonal colors and plenty of room in the middle for stuff to rattle around in. This is not sloppy jam-band rock "jazz," but serious composition executed by sho-nuff players.

Check him out.