Jessica Jones, Mark Taylor, Live at the Freight

Here's something a little off the usual path: a quartet with the front line of tenor (Jessica Jones) and French horn or mellophone (Mark Taylor). Live at the Freight (New Artists 1052) gives you a generous program of Jones and Taylor originals recorded at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, California, in 2011.

It's music that shows the oblique influence of everything from classic Tristano to Mingus's Jazz Workshop units, Wayne Shorter to the wide world of post-bop modern at large.

Jessica and Mark show a highly developed personal sound on their instruments, in part a product of interesting and varied backgrounds and in part sheer talent. Their writing is no less distinctive.

John Shifflet on bass and Jason Lewis on drums have a plasticity that goes well with the frontliners' vision, helping things come together well throughout the set.

It's thinking person's jazz. And it's very good. Recommended.