Records are often made by musicians who don’t work together as a band, with tunes frequently penned at the last minute. But the band that rehearses and performs together gives the music a chance to grow richer in detail, more subtle, more expresive, and more grooving.

Such a band is the Laurent Coq Quartet, heard here in their debut recording.Coq’s compositions and arrangements are unusually rich in shifting grooves, odd-time signatures and metric modulations, evocative melodies, striking harmonies, and many creative uses of form. His playing on this recording shares the imagination and resourcefulness of his composing.

Bruce Barth