ALBUM REVIEWS

*** MICHAEL BRECKER “Now You See It . . . (Now You Don’t)”; GRP

Churning funk, blow-down-the-walls tenor saxophone outbursts, electronically produced orchestrations, warm and appealing melodically rooted statements--this fresh, cross-musical release has it all, and more. Brecker, the king of the contemporary jazz tenor, continues to confirm the worthiness of that appellation with performances that draw on everything from mainstream jazz to world music, presented in a manner that’s distinctively his own. “Escher Sketch (A Tale of Two Rhythms)” finds the hornman blowing heated, charged phrases over a rhythmic fabric that’s a happy coexistence of funk and straight ahead spang-a-lang beat patterns. “Peep” spotlights the leader’s muted-trumpet sounding Electronic Wind Instrument (E.W.I.) and roaring-furnace tenor interacting with Adam Nussbaum’s sure-handed drumming, “Ode to a Doo Da Day” is a tropical-flavored taste and “The Meaning of the Blues” is unadorned emotion. Pianist Joey Calderazzo contributes several steaming extemporizations.