Drummer Matt Wilson has a chameleon"s talent for changing styles--moving from mainstream jazz to the experimental edges of the New York downtown school--and for bringing inspired energy to whatever setting he appears in. His piano-less quartet may be his most personal vehicle, however, a tight-knit working band with Andrew D"Angelo and Jeff Lederer on saxophones and clarinets, and Yosuke Inoue on acoustic and electric basses. The special energy and interplay are apparent from the opener "Thank You Billy Higgins," a vibrant, bouncing, joyous--even laughing--homage to the late drummer that also invokes Higgins"s early employer, Ornette Coleman. Higgins and Coleman are frequent touchstones for Wilson and D"Angelo, as on "All My Children," but deeper roots show in Lederer"s rough-hewn tenor balladry on "Don’t Blame Me," and in the up-tempo version of Tadd Dameron"s "Our Delight." On "Swimming in the Trees" and the title track, the band expands to a septet for two of Wilson"s most developed compositional outings, where the music combines elements from tuned bells and funk rhythms to Middle Eastern modes and free-jazz wailing. Wilson"s band plays with spirit and vision, and clearly has a good time doing it. --Stuart Broomer