The big band has a long history and is central to the jazz aesthetic. Its existence evolved out of the necessity to produce big sounds to fill the large dance halls and auditoriums where bands like Count Basie's and Duke Ellington's, Harry James' and Tommy Dorsey's performed for jitterbugging audiences. Later bands, like those led by Charles Mingus, Thad Jones, Sun Ra and Francy Boland-Kenny Clarke, to name just a few, presented challenging music to listening audiences in venues of varying size, as the art form developed in ways that were splendidly kaleidoscopic.

Enter the Webber/Morris Big Band, active since at least 2019, presenting, on this release of material recorded in 2024 in Brooklyn, NY, some forward-thinking compositions. These include "Just Intonation Etudes for Big Band," a four-part suite that contains highly creative writing exploring aspects of the big band, possibilities not previously explored in the fashion done here. Seven other tracks round out the offering, pieces that spotlight combinations of instruments and feature solos by several of the band's members with at times minimalist background settings and episodes of what seem like freeform improvisations.

Instrumentally, this is a fairly standard big band, with six woodwinds, four trumpets, four trombones, and a rhythm section of drums, bass, guitar, piano and vibraphone. What is special and different about it are the writing ideas from the minds of saxophonists Anna Webber and Angela Morris, who composed and conducted the music. And added to that, everyone involved rises to the occasion to make the music fly.