Sleep Walker: Works (2007)

More than just "works" from Sleep Walker - a collection of singles, remixes, and new tracks - all representing some of the best work from this ultra-hip club jazz combo! As with their full albums, the style here is jazz-based at the outset - played in a classic mode that has plenty of echoes of Impulse Records during the Coltrane generation - but forged into a tighter, leaner groove for the 21st Century - a mode that's sometimes rhythmic and aimed at the dancefloor, yet which never loses any sense of depth or creativity from a jazz perspective! Saxophonist Masato Nakamura contributes some incredibly great tenor and soprano work to the tunes - and Hajimi Yoshizawa's modal piano lines pulsate tremendously throughout. A few cuts are remixes, but still very much embody the Sleep Walker sound - with new instrumentation, as the group makes a live jazz take on the tracks they're supposedly remixing! Titles include "Quiet Dawn", "Wind", "River Of Love", "Eclipse", "Big Escape", and "Waltz For Moe (new take)" - plus Sleep Walker versions of "Don't Believe A Word" by Victor Davies, "Sim Ou Nao" by Jazzinho, and "Pathways" by Jazztronik. (Review courtesy of Dusty Groove)

A solid album, not just some haphazard collection. The definitive highligt for me is the fine version of Cal Massey's "Quiet Dawn".