(Bop) Heads Of State - Four In One - 2017, MP3, 320 kbps

Heads of State made their debut in 2015 with Search for Peace, recorded just months after they played together for the first time as a quartet at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City. Now, with another year of playing together under their collective belts (on top of the nearly five decades of relationships shared by the various members), they return with a magnificent new album Four in One. The title comes from the lesser-known Thelonious Monk composition that opens the record, but it also succinctly captures the group s growing spirit and identity that have been forged by an all-star band that was originally meant to be just a one-off. 'We re trying as best as we know how to establish our own identity,' Willis explains, and not sound like a jam session band. Given the impeccable taste and wealth of experience of all four members, there was very little chance of a 'jam session' sensibility emerging in any case, but in the short time they ve been working together the Heads of State have developed a lithe and lively group sound that s equal parts burning and elegant, sharp-edged and gregarious. 'It's hard to imagine a jazz supergroup more formidable than this one… Impassioned, hard-swinging excellence is guaranteed.'