(Positone)

Pianist-composer Orrin Evans take the big band jazz genre to a new level with his cooly-branded Captain Black Big Band. A Mother’s Touch is the first studio recording of the 20-plus member ensemble. The project primarily features nicely crafted originals by Evans, along with fine covers of great work by Wayne Shorter, Eric Revis and Donald Edwards, with various members of the band arranging the compositions. Some of the incredible contributors to this effort include Duane Eubanks, Tatum Greenblatt and Fabio Morgera on trumpets, Conrad Herwig, Stafford Hunter and David Gibson on trombones, Todd Bashore, Marcus Strickland and Stacy Dillard on saxophones, Luques Curtis on bass, and Anwar Marshall and Ralph Peterson on drums. The recording is a fresh and exciting perspective that is really worth hearing.