I don't typically pick up modern Impulse! releases, I'm just more interested in their own 60s and 70s heyday. There's even a bunch of ABC Impulse! product that I really dig. But by the time GRP resurrected it as a label releasing contemporary records, that's when you can mostly count me out. I'm not trying to see the classic orange and black livery sullied with some early 90s smooth jazz. Even throughout the massive reissue program that started around '94, I can't think of any modern classics interspersed amongst the likes of Coltrane, Ayler, Mingus, Sanders, and Rollins. Which, you know...that's cool by me. They can't all worth the deluxe 220gram treatment.
Saying that, I did pick this 5" silver slab up a few weeks ago, after I'd seen it, orphaned, on a thrift store shelf over three visits. It ended up being a pretty cool find, featuring a sextet of bands performing live at the appropriately-named Smalls Jazz Club in New York City right at the turn of the millenium. The only one of these groups I was familiar with going into it was the Jason Lindner Big Band, whose "Hexophony" is the standout for me. But all nine tracks are pretty great, honoring their roots without sounding derivative. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the buck it cost me.
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