JAZZ SPOTLIGHT

BLACK/NOTE

“Jungle Music”

Columbia

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Post-bop combo Black/Note has done more for the L.A. jazz scene than any group in recent memory. The band’s jump to a major label is the envy of the handful of L.A. ensembles that plow the same ground on the revitalized Crenshaw jazz scene.

In its favor, Black/Note functions as a unit--no single member is being touted as the next big thing. But Black/Note does fit the record business’s infatuation with revivalism. Its sound leans heavily toward the Jazz Messengers model that Art Blakey and others established in the ‘60s.

The all-original program here, most of which was penned by fine bassist Mark Shelby, provides enough twists and turns on the neo-bop tradition to sound fresh, though the lack of strong melodic and rhythmic hooks (with the exception of “Fourth Grade”) imparts a cool distance.

The disc’s standout moments are those of interplay, most notably on Shelby’s “Dreams of Elizabeth Brown,” in which the exchange between alto saxophonist James Mahone, trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and tenorman Phil Vieux are glove tight and intertwine like clasped hands.

The soloists, led by Mahone, provide enough modern insight to keep “Jungle Music” from sounding totally derivative. Though charter member Vieux falls short of Mahone’s smartness, his tenor trades with the altoman on “Evil Dancer” are fat and belligerent. Both trumpeter Castellanos and pianist Ark Sano ramble along nicely on “Fifth Street Dick’s,” while drummer Willie Jones III is ably responsive to the horns and persistently inventive during solos throughout.

Though they’re not yet top-rung musicians, the members of Black/Note are poised, and determined enough, to take the next step.

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