's first outing on the label is also her first to feature all-original material. The classy vocalist is joined by an impressive cast: ( 's brother/producer) on bass, or on piano, on drums, on alto, on tenor, on trumpet and flugelhorn, and on percussion. wrote the music, the lyrics, and the arrangements, and much of it is impressive, particularly the difficult melody line she sings in unison with the horns on In the production booth, however, relies a bit too heavily on fadeouts. The three/four the mellow and the ambitious jam vehicle would have benefited from real endings; the fades on these tracks sound like the creative equivalent of pulling the plug. Instrumental detail livens up some otherwise pedestrian material (e.g., the horn lick on the outro of and 's tenor filigree and solo [and 's brushes] on ). ups the ante, lyrically speaking, on the last two tracks: co-written with , deals with spiritual striving and contains a recitation of a poem, while dedicated to the late pianist , is a dramatic plea for peace. ~ David R. Adler