Despite the boxing imagery of the title and cover art, the music here draws on the occasional gracefulness and tactical choreography of "the sweet science" rather than its brutality. The group has great rapport, with evidently little inclination for anyone to show off. It's not "drummer's music," even though bandleader Ray Marchica is a drummer, an active Broadway musician who moonlights in jazz.

Guitarist Rodney Jones, who seems to be a kind of artistic spur to Marchica, is fairly deferential. His arrangements are sprightly and his originals bring out fine collaborative efforts: Jones' "9H5" displays a guitar-drums partnership that is as propulsively unified as a twin-engine jet.

The rest of the group consists of two formidable players, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and tenor saxophonist Teodross Avery. Plaxico can come across as unsettlingly macho in his own music, but takes some of the edge off his approach in this group, notably on "Billie's Bounce," a Charlie Parker evergreen piquantly reharmonized by Jones.

Avery contrasts relaxed and frantic modes appealingly in the stretched-out "Journey's End," and is key to the pleasant group feeling on another standard, "I Can't Get Started." The nine-tune program also includes the hard-to-redeem-for-jazz "Tequila" and the overplayed "Summertime."

— Jay Harvey
September 4, 2005
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