William Parker has released one of Billy Bang's best albums to date.

Bang can get carried away with his rough-hewn fiddling, and he's not entirely convincing as a composer, but he's quite a player. Bang bops and bounces so much that being left to his own devices doesn't put him at his best advantage. Probably his best recorded appearance is on another session he didn't lead: Kahil El'Zabar's Big Cliff (1995, Delmark). Like El'Zabar, bassist William Parker is a born leader, and Bang benefits from the guidance.

In his recent small groups, Parker has been writing sweet lines that are perfect fodder for the violinist. Bang plays them well, and when he steps outside of them his sawtooth solos make sense. Scrapbook is like an old jazz record that stirs up a bit of love whenever you happen on it. With six tracks and clocking in at forty minutes, it even feels like an lp, something that might have come out on Black Saint in the '70s, noticed because of Bang's association with the String Trio of New York and briefly adored. It doesn't add much to the oeuvres of the players, whose CVs in any case are plenty strong. The rhythm section of Parker and drummer Hamid Drake are so strong and so omnipresent on the scene that, even on a more straight-ahead date such as this, they barely need comment. And as with all the Thirsty Ear Blue Series releases, the sound is excellent.

And, of course, Scrapbook isn't a 25-year-old album you keep tucked away. It's new. But like a scrapbook, sometime around 2035 you'll stumble upon it and remember how lovely it was then.