Odeans List IN+OUT ****

Veteran tenor saxophonist Odean Pope leads a heavyweight octet, including James Carter (tenor/baritone), Terell Stafford (trumpet) and an incendiary George Burton- Lee Smith-Jeff "Tain" Watts rhythm section, for a forceful demonstration of his gifts as a composer, orchestrator and performer. With a foot set equably in bop and free-form, Pope sounds like nobody but himself. But he's also an orchestrator of substance and, behind the visceral approach, his sense of order and drama is reflected in both aspects of his talent; the bristling complexities, executed with panache and power, of Collections, To the Roach(a tribute to drummer Max Roach) and the gruffly tender Cis, lack neither focus nor clarity. Stafford and Pope are perhaps the finest soloists in a band which, individually and collectively, has enough testosterone-fuelled presence to sweep all before it. See inandout-records.com