Product Review

After six prior engagements for Criss Cross as a sideman, drummer Donald Edwards' first leader offering for the label is a program of ten well-wrought originals that embrace the complex harmonies and rhythms of 21st century jazz while hewing to strong melodic values and abiding soulfulness. Helping set the mood is an A-list ensemble: pianist (and Criss Cross veteran) Orrin Evans and bassist Eric Revis, with whom Edwards performed on the 2013 Orrin Evans Trio record It was Beauty (CRC 1359), as well as tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III (III - CRC 1328) and world-class guitarist David Gilmore.