https://steptempest.blogspot.com/2022/01/from-bass-upwards-onwards.html

The Month In Jazz – January 2022 In 2021, Posi-Tone Records’ owners wanted to keep making records under pandemic conditions, so they asked four of their regular roster of players to form a “pod” and work together on multiple sessions throughout the year. Pianist Art Hirahara, vibraphonist Behn Gillece, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston were the chosen four, and they made a total of five albums together: one under Hirahara’s name, one under Gillece’s, and one each by backing trumpeter Alex Sipiagin and alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino. The final installment in the series comes under Kozlov’s leadership, and the guest this time is saxophonist Donny McCaslin. “Page One,” not the Joe Henderson composition but a piece by McCaslin, kicks off the album with a gong strike from Royston and a short bowed intro from Kozlov, then becomes a dramatic, hard bop burner with a punchy, memorable hook, on which everyone gets a moment in the spotlight. Kozlov is the bassist, arranger, and musical director for the Mingus Big Band, and he wrote six of the eleven songs on this album, which have a modern classicist feel; they swing hard, and are arranged with a fullness that makes them sound like there are more than five people playing. (From First Things First, out now via Posi-Tone.)