Just when you think you've got Russell Gunn figured out, he moves on to the next town, much like the fabled Wild West gunfighters alluded to in his 1994 debut title, Young Gunn. A fiery trumpet player, imaginative composer, forceful leader, and sturdy sideman as Wynton Marsalis discovered, when he hired Russell for "Blood on the Fields" Gunn, just 28, has continually surprised audiences with his audaciousness and imagination. His last album for HighNote, Love Requiem, was a high concept suite about romantic love and loss. His follow-up, a daring effort, took on hip-hop and world beat. On this new effort, Gunn has a showdown with straight-ahead, burn-your-face-off jazz, played by a quintet that knows just how to get where it wants to go, and how to take you with them. Gunn handles his horn with style. Deep listeners will hear a kinship right away with the great Booker Little, in the kid's fierceness of attack, urgency of message and probing harmonic curiosity. How refreshing, in these days of "smooth" and "tech" everything, to hear jazz with some real aggressive tension and a little darkness.

Russell Gunn- trumpet; Bruce Williams- alto saxophone; Marc Cary- piano; Eric Revis- bass; Terreon Gully- drums

Tracks: The Paris Masses Begin; The San Domingo Masses Complete; Amnesia; El's Kitchen; Groid; Yvette; Memory of Waterford; The Beach; Delfeayo's Dilemma; Crescent.

 El's Kitchen

 The Beach

 Delfeayo's Dilemma